Greenough Wildlife Park’s new resident reptiles

If it’s been a while since you last stopped by the Greenough Wildlife Park, it might be just the thing to break up the last week of school holidays.

Wayne Cowie and his partner Krystle Barrett took over operation of the park five weeks ago, and have since added new birds and reptiles.

“It’s all well and good getting tourists through ... we wanted to have something for the locals too.” Mr Cowie said.

New additions include southern heath monitors, Gould’s monitors, and a perentie monitor called Titan. He is the largest species of lizard in Australia, and the only one in captivity in the Mid West.

Mr Cowie brought most of the new animals up from his backyard collection in Perth. He has been displaying and breeding reptiles for 18 years. He said the park is an opportunity to give them more room to roam - safely in their enclosures of course. “People say, ‘why don’t you put them in smaller cages? Then you could have more’. That’s not what it’s about.” Mr Cowie and Ms Barrett’s first move was to open the park six days a week. The school holiday program runs all week.