
Fast Facts
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Full Name Gold Coast Area 1,402 sq km 541 sq miles Population 421,557 Time Zone GMT/UTC +10 () Currency Australian Dollar (A$) |
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Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary
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There are three wildlife sanctuaries in the Burleigh Heads area. Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is an excellent spot to see Australian native animals, including tree kangaroos, koalas, emus, wombats and other cute and fuzzies. They're joined daily by flocks of brilliantly coloured rainbow lorikeets, which take great delight in eating out of your hand. |
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Sea World
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A huge aquatic theme park, Sea World has loads of animal performances, including twice-daily dolphin shows, sea-lion shows, shark-feeding, and the real crowd-pleasers - two celebrity resident polar bears, Hudson and Nelson. You'll have to set a schedule though - the waterslides and rollercoasters are agonizingly addictive. |
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Springbrook National Park
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Springbrook national park is perched atop a 900m (2952ft) high plateau, which, like the rest of the McPherson Range, is a remnant of the huge volcano that once centred on Mt Warning in NSW. The park's vegetation is cool-temperate rainforest and eucalypt forest, with gorges, cliffs, forests and waterfalls, numerous walking tracks and several picnic areas.
The village of Springbrook is balanced right on the edge of the plateau, with several waterfalls (when there's enough rain) that tumble more than 100m (328ft) to the coastal plain below. There are several places where you can get the giddy thrill of leaning right out over the edge, including Purling Brook Falls, at the Gwongorella Picnic Area, just off Springbrook Rd, Canyon Look-out and Best of All Lookout, which is reached via Lyrebird Ridge Rd. |
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