Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

How to visit without wasting the trip

The thing to sort before you go is the koala-hold photo, not general admission. Entry from about A$52 (£28) gets you into the sanctuary, but holding a koala — the only reason most people are here, and the only place in Queensland it’s legal — is a separate ~A$40 (£21) add-on that runs in capped sessions across the day. Those sessions fill up in school holidays, so book the hold online when you book your ticket rather than discovering the morning slots have gone. Don’t pay for a koala photo elsewhere in Brisbane; this is where it’s done properly.

How you arrive is the other call. The Mirimar river cruise sails from South Bank up the Brisbane River and drops you at the sanctuary’s own jetty in about 75 minutes — it’s a lovely, slow way in and you can buy a combined cruise-plus-entry ticket. The cheaper, faster option is the 430 bus from the city, roughly 35 minutes. Take the boat one way and the bus back if you want both without losing half a day on the water.

Is the koala cuddle worth the trip?

Go for opening at 09:00. Brisbane warms quickly and the koalas, who sleep up to 20 hours a day regardless, get even sleepier by the afternoon, while the kangaroo paddock and the raptor and sheepdog shows are calmer before the coach groups land. Allow two to three hours — more if you’ve taken the cruise. The free-roaming kangaroo-and-wallaby paddock, where you buy a bag of feed and they come to you, is genuinely the best part and often beats the koala queue.

It’s worth it if you want the hands-on encounters — the koala cuddle, the kangaroo feed, the platypus and the Tasmanian devils. If you only want to see a koala dozing in a gum, you can do that for free elsewhere around Brisbane and skip the entry. Pair it with an afternoon back at South Bank and the lagoon rather than stacking another paid attraction the same day.