| 1948: |
Park
founder Eric Worrell opens his first tourist attraction,
The Ocean Beach Aquarium, at Umina on the Central Coast. |
| |
|
| 1951: |
Eric begins a long-term association with
the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, providing snake venom required
to produce antivenoms. |
| |
|
| 1958: |
The Ocean Beach Aquarium moves to North Gosford
and becomes the Australian Reptile Park. During the next few years
Eric becomes a well known identity Australia-wide as a naturalist
and the Park grows rapidly from its two original snake pits and entry
kiosk. |
| |
|
| 1963: |
Australia's first 'big' icon and the Reptile
Park's mascot - 40 tonne, 30 metre, 'Ploddy'
the Dinosaur - is built
at the Park entrance overlooking the Pacific Highway. |
| |
|
| 1965-70: |
The Reptile Park grows in leaps and bounds
under the Curatorship of Peter Krauss. Many non-native reptiles are
imported. The first 'noctarium' in Australia is built to house nocturnal
mammals of Australia and New Guinea. Crowds of over 170,000 are attracted
each year. |
| |
|
| 1963: |
Australia's first icon and the Parks mascot
- 40 tonne, 30 metre, Ploddy the Dinosaur - is built and placed at
the Park entrance. |
| |
First Park in Australia to import foreign
snakes, including king cobras. |
| |
|
| 1970: |
Eric receives an MBE personally from the
Queen in recognition of his life-saving role in the development of
anti-venom. The Reptile Park begins providing funnel-web spider venom
to the CSL in the long process of developing an anti-venom. |
| |
The Park begins providing funnel-web spider
venom to the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories to develop anti-venom. |
| |
|
| 1980: |
Finally, the long-awaited funnel-web spider
anti-venom is made available |
| |
|
| 1984: |
The Reptile Park visitation down to less
than half of what it had been in the 'golden days' and business must
find a solution or close down. A "Save the Reptile Park" Committee
is formed independently to help the Park through tough times. More
than 100,000 signatures requested state government assistance, which
was rejected. |
| |
|
| 1985: |
A management team is formed to steer the
Reptile Park, which included future owners John and Robyn Weigel. |
| |
|
| 1986-91: |
Tremendous efforts are made to revitalize
and promote the aging attraction. |
| |
|
| 1987: |
Eric Worrell dies of a heart attack, aged
63. |
| |
|
| 1989: |
4.7 metre long 'Eric' the salt water crocodile
is imported from the Northern Territory on a special jet freighter
- named in honour of Eric Worrell. The Park enjoys big crowds. |
| |
|
| 1990: |
The park opens 'Reptiles Alive' in Sydney,
a large budget reptile exhibit on the lower level of Sydney Tower.
This exhibition attracted half a million paying visitors during its
five year life. |
| |
|
| 1992: |
Launch of the Park's mobile education program,
'We're All Little Aussies', visiting more than 150,000 school children
Australia-wide each year to the end of the decade.
John and Robyn Weigel become principal owners of the business, and make the decision
to relocate the Park. |
| |
|
| 1993: |
A location for the new Australian Reptile
Park is found: a beautiful bushland site is chosen at Somersby, near
Gosford, adjacent to Old Sydney Town. The design process begins immediately. |
| |
|
| 1995: |
Construction of the new Park commences |
| |
|
| 1996: |
The new Reptile Park's grand opening is held
on 7 September, signaling the first relocation of a fauna park of
its size in Australia. The event is preceded by a parade through
Gosford celebrating the relocation of Ploddy the dinosaur to its
new home. Over 15,000 well-wishers lined the streets of Gosford and
cheered as Ploddy was ceremoniously transported from the 'old' Australian
Reptile Park - along her way to the future. |
| |
|
| 1997: |
The Reptile Park wins its first tourism awards
for Major Attraction and Environmental Tourism at the Regional Tourism
Awards. |
| |
|
| 1998: |
The Reptile Park wins the regional, State,
and National Tourism Award for Best Regional Attraction.
|
| |
The Park has a birthday - and celebrates
50 years of saving lives and bringing
smiles. |
| |
|
| 1999: |
The Park once again wins Regional, State
and National Tourism Award in the category of Best Regional Attraction.
Additionally won an 'Award of Distinction' in category of Environmental
Tourism for NSW. |
| |
The Park is honoured to win special 'Award
of the Decade' commemorating the best regional attraction in NSW
during the decade 1989 - 1998. |
| |
|
| 2000: |
A devastating
fire wiped out Reptile Park's
main building, destroying Australia's largest collection reptiles,
amphibians and spiders on the night of 16 July. All the external
facilities and animals, including Eric the crocodile, escaped the
fire. A fault in an electrical lead was found to be the cause. |
| |
The Reptile Park reopened in an abbreviated
format on 9 September in time to capitalize on tourism surge generated
by the 2000 Sydney Olympics. |
| |
The exciting and unique Lost World of Reptiles
exhibit opens on Boxing Day, attracting record crowds. |
| |
|
| 2001: |
Spider World, the final part of the rebuilding
process opens to the general public at Easter. |
| |
The Australian Reptile Park is the receipient
of a $90,000 federal government grant from the Regional Tourism Program,
the cheque is officially handed over by Jim Lloyd, federal member
for Robertson. |
| |
|
June
2008 |
Australian Reptile Park Director Honoured
Australian Reptile Park Director John Weigel receives one of the nation’s highest civilian awards – Member (AM) of the Order of Australia. The award was announced by the Governor General as part of the Queen’s Birthday celebrations in recognition of John’s contributions to Australian tourism, herpetology, and snake venom production.
|
A Timeline Through History
