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Opportunities
Volunteering
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| Stephanie with our goats |
Our animal volunteers help out with lots of different tasks including but not limited to:
- Cleaning enclosures - this can include sweeping, raking and picking up poo, weeding, watering plants and setting up sprinklers.
- Helping out with crowd control at our shows and photo sessions.
- Feeding animals.
- Environmental enrichment enclosure maintenance eg. digging holes, removing tree branches, planting trees
- Assisting keepers with daily shows.
- Taking farm animals for daily walks and assisting with bottle feeding.
Our customer relations volunteers have lots of fun talking with our guests, answering questions and assisting with crowd control:
- Greeting visitors as they arrive.
- Generally roving around and answering questions about the Zoo and the animals.
- Giving visitors suggestions as to how to get maximum enjoyment out of their day Helping visitors to locate our shows and facilities.
- Crowd control at shows, photo sessions etc
- Helping out in our walk-through enclosures by answering visitors' questions about the animals and recommending the best way to pat the animals.
- Assist with disabled or VIP groups visiting the Zoo.
- Conducting animal observations (recording animal behaviour).
Work Experience
Our Volunteer Program is available for any work experience, and information about our volunteer program can be found here. Our Volunteer Program also focuses mainly on animal keeper roles. If you have further enquiries, please feel free to email to info@australiazoo.com.au and your questions will be forwarded to our Volunteer Co-ordinator.
School-based Traineeships
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| School-based trainees |
Australia Zoo has grown and developed relationships with nearby local school/s to undertake the School-Based Traineeship Program with their students. This selection process is completed over a number of sessions which include practise interviews, role plays, resume preparation, communication skills, interviews with the employer and then a 5 day work placement.
Our traineeship program has mainly focused on Certificate 2 in Tourism, Certificate 2 in Horticulture and Certificate 2 in Business. Currently, we are not offering any traineeships within the keeper sections of our Zoo.
Unfortunately, due to a lack of accommodation and the distances to travel to and from work, it is generally not easy for students from other schools to organise their 2 year traineeship. It is also very difficult for the school to visit and liaise with us as employers.
Apprenticeships and Traineeships
Over the past few years, we have been introducing apprenticeships and traineeships into sections of the Zoo. We are very interested in any person who would like to apply for trade apprenticeships as this is a skills shortage area in Australia. Remember again though, that transport and accommodation must be sorted before even trying to consider this option.
We do have some capacity to take on traineeships, however we need to ensure that we have appropriately qualified and trained leaders in these areas. Due to the rapid rate of changes and development, there is also immense pressure on these leaders in constantly developing their policy and procedures, and with their daily staff management.
Internships
Currently, any internship needs to be able to fit into the criteria for our Volunteer Program. Applicants will need to be able to commit to 5 consecutive days first and then if approved, may continue to volunteer in a manner in which to fulfill their internship criteria.
It is very difficult to organise an internship or work experience if you do not have accommodation in the local area. Australia Zoo is located at Beerwah, and public transport and local accommodation is limited.