A taste of the Serengeti is coming to the Central West

November 28, 2022

Stock image.

By Peter Holmes

Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo will build a "large-scale Serengeti Plains exhibit" after receiving $20 million from the NSW government.

The $30 million project - including $10 million from zoo - will also fund 20 premium eco-cabins, a new two-storey café, restaurant and function centre, a pool and a playground.

Deputy premier and minister for regional NSW Paul Toole said the project was one of 30 across the state that will receive a share in $150 million from round two of the Regional Tourism Activation Fund to develop high impact tourism and events infrastructure.

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“We know regional NSW has Australia’s best tourist destinations and experiences,” Toole said in a statement. “We want to amplify that by helping create new experiences and drawcards that put more heads on beds and attract more tourism dollars into regional communities.”

Taronga Western Plains Zoo director Steve Hinks said it was “an absolute game changer … It will firmly cement Dubbo as the number one family holiday destination in Australia.”

The press statement released by the deputy premier’s office contained nothing about the Serengeti exhibit, other than to say it would be built. The Orange News Examiner sought more information from Toole’s office and the zoo.

Toole's office had no more detail, and nobody at the zoo was available for comment.

Serengeti National Park is in northern Tanzania, and runs to the border with Kenya.

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According to the official website it covers nearly 15,000 square kilometres and is home to 4,000 lions, 1,000 leopards, 550 cheetahs, about 500 bird species and two million ungulates including eland, zebra, topi, kongoni, impala and Grant's gazelle.

Steve Hinks and a design drawing. Supplied.

You’ll also find elephants, giraffes and hyenas.

The Serengeti is famed for its 800km Great Migration.

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The Serengeti website states: “The journey for the key players in the Great Migration, the roughly two million wildebeest, starts in the south of the Serengeti, with the birth of half a million calves between January and March.

“The timing of the migration coincides with greening of nutritious grasses on the short-grass plains during the wet season. These areas are safer because predators can be easily spotted, making it an ideal place for calving.

“However, the plains dry and the wildebeest are forced to move in search of greener pastures in the western corridor. The northern extension of the ecosystem has the highest rainfall, but the grasses are least nutritious. This is the dry season retreat for the wildebeest, at least until the south becomes green again. The result is a clockwise movement from the south, west, north, and back to the south.”

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Western Plains currently runs a Savannah Safari, which features African animals such as giraffe, rhino and zebra.

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