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Monarto Safari Park

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Monarto Safari Park - All You MUST Know Before You Go (2024)

A Day at Monarto Safari Park, South Australia

Last updated: December 30, 2023

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One of the best things to do in South Australia with kids is a day at Monarto Safari Park. Here is all you need to know for a great visit.

I am a bit wary about zoos. In recent years we have become more informed about the way zoos and other animal attractions treat their animals.

It’s no longer okay to ride elephants, and circus animals are no longer made to do unnatural tricks. Zoos with animals confined in small, dirty cages are no longer entertaining or fun. In fact, they are downright repulsive.

The good news is, you will not find anything like that here at Monarto Safari Park.

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TL;DR? Here's the outline

About Monarto Safari Park

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Monarto Safari Park was first started in 1983 when the South Australian government designated 1000 hectares of land as a breeding and conservation area for Zoos SA.

In 1993, Monarto was opened up to the public as an open range zoo allowing visitors to see the animals and continue with the Zoos SA mission to connect people with animals.

Soon many animals were moved here from the Adelaide Zoo to allow larger enclosures to be built there for the remaining animals. Other animals were brought in from all over the world to establish breeding programs for many endangered species.

Today Monarto Safari Park is over 1500 hectares and has acquired even more land for future development. All of the area is open range, meaning the animals roam in huge enclosures not cages like you would see in a traditional zoo.

It’s not only being used for breeding and conservation of animals though, there are many areas where Australian native animals live in the wild too, and you are just as likely to see wild kangaroos and emus wandering around as giraffes and lions.

There are also pockets of rare native flora that are being revegetated, and some areas remain as virgin scrub that is now protected from future development.

In 2019 a huge new redevelopment was announced, including the name change from Monarto Zoo to Monarto Safari Park. The plans include a luxury resort and glamping facilities and a big new visitor centre.

A whole new area of more than 500 hectares, called Wild Africa, is being developed that will have roaming herds just like the safari parks in Africa. There are also new habitats, such as a huge, walk-through lemur enclosure, and lots of new experiences too.

Some parts of the redevelopment have now been completed, such as the new visitor centre and the lemur habitat. The accommodation and Wild Africa are expected to open later in 2023.

When completed this will turn Monarto Safari Park into the largest safari park outside of Africa. You can read more about it here . I, for one, am very excited to see the upcoming changes.

Monarto Safari Park is located on the traditional lands of the Ngarrindjeri people.

The distance from Adelaide to Monarto Safari Park is about 75km. If you are driving, it’s an easy drive along the South Eastern Freeway, taking a little under an hour.

There is a limited bus service to Monarto Safari Park from Adelaide run by LinkSA. During the week it goes directly to Monarto, on the weekends a connection is needed in the town of Mount Barker.

The bus leaves from Currie Street in the centre of Adelaide, with services in the morning to Monarto then returning later in the afternoon. For more information, go to the LinkSA website here .

The LinkSA bus prices (as of April 2023) for Adelaide to Monarto direct are $23.80 (adult) or $11.90 (concession) each way.

The weekend service requires an AdelaideMetro bus to Mt Barker which has varying prices, at most it will be $5.80 each way ( see all Adelaide Metro fare details here ). The LinkSA bus from Mount Barker to Monarto Safari Park will be $14.60 (adult) or $7.30 (concession) each way.

If you are visiting Adelaide with family members, it might be worth considering hiring a car to drive to Monarto. I use and recommend Rentalcars.com to compare and find the cheapest car rental options.

Click here to check car rental prices for your visit.

Until the Monarto Safari Prak accommodation is open, f you would like to stay nearby, I recommend staying at the Bridgeport Hotel in Murray Bridge, just a ten-minute drive away.

Want a special day out? How about an E-Cycling Safari , possibly the most fun of the Monarto Safari Park tours. You will spend a whole day exploring the park with a guided e-bike tour, including breakfast with the giraffes and the Lions 360 experience.

For general entry to Monarto Safari Park tickets can be bought online for $45 for adult tickets, and $25 for children’s tickets. Children under four are free.

There are various family tickets available too. Concession tickets are also available for $33.50, but you will need to ensure you have a photo ID with you.

Click here to buy tickets online before your visit

If you would like to also visit Adelaide Zoo, there are discounts of up to 50% on the second park if you buy a two-park pass.

Even better, you could pick up an annual membership from Zoos SA and have unlimited access to both Adelaide Zoo and Monarto Safari Park and even more zoos and wildlife parks across Australia.

Your membership payment helps to save species both here at Monarto and across the world through international partnerships.

Monarto is open from 9:30 am until 5 pm every day of the year. Yes, that includes Christmas and all other public holidays. Don’t arrive too late in the day though, because the last Zuloop bus leaves the visitor centre at 3 pm.

It is really easy to spend a full day at Monarto. If you don’t have a full day, the bare minimum of time I would allow is 2 hours. The Zuloop bus takes 90 minutes to do one entire loop – but that is all you would see.

I recommend allowing time to get off at least one or two of the stops to see some more of the animals and some time to enjoy the cafe, gift shop and displays at the visitor’s centre.

I also highly recommend including one of the animal experiences in your day too, which will add another hour or two at least, depending on the experience you choose.

There’s hiking, picnic areas, playgrounds for the kids and free keeper talks to do too. I almost always spend a whole day at Monarto and always leave feeling like there is still more to see and do.

One of the things that have already changed at Monarto Safari Park is the entrance and the Visitor Centre. Entry used to be from the Old Princes Highway, but it has now been moved to the other side of the park off Monarto Road.

This adds about 5-10 minutes to the drive time from Adelaide, so make sure you allow for that if you have been before.

Once you arrive at the visitors centre, grab a Monarto Safari Park map and information about when the free keeper talks are throughout the day so you can start to plan your time.

If you like to plan even further ahead, the keeper times are available over on the website here .

To see most of the animals you will need to jump on the Zu-loop bus. It stops outside the visitor information centre (look out for the signs) and leaves about every 15-20 minutes.

Either do a full loop on the bus and learn about all the animals and conservation projects, or get off at the various stops to see the keeper talks.

The volunteer guides on the buses will remind you what keeper talks are coming up and where to get off the bus. And don’t worry, they will not let you off in the lion enclosure!

If you prefer, there are also a lot of safe hiking trails available as part of Monarto Safari Park. There are over 12km of walking tracks that are open for hiking. Some will take you to the various locations for the keeper talks, others will take you through bushland.

One Zu-loop stop you should get off at is at the old visitors centre, now called “The Outpost”. This is the old visitor information centre so there are toilets, a playground and picnic tables here.

On weekends and during SA school holidays the cafe here is also open for a few hours in the middle of the day. There are also some animals close to this stop that you can walk to see.

The meerkats are only metres away and are always a favourite of both kids and adults alike. There are a few different enclosures, and you may need to search through them to find the meerkats.

Just like in the wild, tunnels zig-zag underground where the meerkats can live and breed, and the enclosures only contain the above-ground portion of their habitat.

There are also a pair of African crested porcupines that live close to the visitors’ centre, but they have always been elusive during my visits. I am assured by other people they do exist though! There’s now a new baby porcupine too, born in January 2023.

The yellow-footed rock wallabies are a little further along the path that eventually leads to the Chimpanzee enclosure.

This enclosure is the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere and is home to twelve chimpanzees, and when I was there earlier this year, a new baby girl too.

There are about 500 animals here at Monarto Safari Park, more than 50 different species, so I won’t go through and list them all.

Some you can see are giraffes, lions, two different types of rhino, cheetah, bison, ostriches, zebra and many more here, all living out on the open plains.

Many of them are endangered, some even extinct in the wild, and the breeding programs are playing a vital role in preserving the species.

After you have finished visiting the animals, make sure you browse through the gift shop or grab a snack, drink or meal at the cafe.

While there are plenty of areas to bring and eat a picnic, all proceeds from the cafe go towards animal conservation, so it’s good to support the cause even more if you can.

The shop stocks not just a good range of soft toys and kids’ gifts, but there are also many local products such as jewellery, crafts, wine, honey, dried fruits and olive oil to purchase too.

Do not leave without making your way upstairs to the viewing deck for great views across the park.

While you are up there, stop by the interesting display about Monarto’s history. I was surprised to learn that it had been around for much longer than I imagined, and enjoyed reading about some of the best-known animals that have lived here – including the last elephant to live in SA.

Monarto Safari Park Experiences

As well as a general visit there are several Monarto Safari Park experiences that are particularly special. Here you can get up close and personal with some of the animals and learn more about them and their plight for survival.

Here are a few of the most popular, but there are many more available. To see them all, click here .

Recently a new cage was built in the lion enclosure. The cage is not for the lions though, it is for visitors.

People walk through a tunnel into the lion enclosure and emerge into a mesh cage, which is all that is between you and the lions. If they so wish the lions can come over and climb all over it.

There is also an old vehicle backed into the cage which again visitors can climb into. Sit in the driver’s seat and watch out the front window as the lions walk all over the windscreen to investigate what the movement is inside.

I don’t think you could get any more up close to these amazing creatures unless you took the cage away!

Read about my Lions 360 Experience here .

With this experience, visitors can get up close to the giraffes and learn all about them. There is a huge herd at Monarto, the largest in Australia, with only a few of them in the enclosure the bus drives through at any one time.

There is almost always a baby or two to see, and I know that since my last visit at least two more babies have arrived. During the giraffe safari visitors also get to hand-feed some of the giraffes.

Monarto Safari Park has both the Southern White Rhino and the Black Rhino living here. The latter is critically endangered so the program here is particularly important.

There are big plans to bring more rhinos to Monarto shortly, but in the meantime, you can spend some time hanging out with the keeper and those that are already here, including the cutest little southern white rhino baby!

Visitors get to assist with the daily health checks, and since this is an afternoon experience, you get to help put them to bed too.

This late afternoon experience has visitors helping the keepers call the largest lion pride in Australia into their night quarters. You get to help to feed them, before also having a chance to get close to some of the other carnivores at Monarto, the hyenas.

This is the latest experience offered at Monarto, part of the new Wild Africa development. Spend an hour wandering through the 3.5-hectare lemur habitat while these cheeky critters play around you.

Read about my visit to The Land of the Lemurs here.

Want more Monarto Safari Park reviews? Check out what other people are saying on TripAdvisor here

Visiting more great South Australian locations? These posts might help Adelaide 3-Day Itinerary Best Places for South Australia Whale Watching The Ultimate List of What to Do on Kangaroo Island

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Josie Kelsh is South Australian, born and bred, living here for her whole life. Travelling all over the world has shown her exactly how amazing South Australia is to live and travel in and she uses her passion to show it to you the way a local sees it.

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Monarto Safari Park Launch Land of the Lemurs Experience

Monarto safari park, launch land of.

Image: Zoos SA

Posted By : The Animal Facts Editorial Team

Date: October 28, 2022 7:55 pm

Guests visiting Monarto Safari Park will be able to get within a tail length of one of Australia's largest ring-tailed lemur troops when the Land of the Lemurs experience launches on November 14th. Ticket sales began today on world lemur day.

Director of Monarto Safari Park, Peter Clark, said “Land of the Lemurs has been years in the making, so it is a very significant milestone and we are extremely excited to launch on World Lemur Day."

“Our Zu-loop bus will not venture past the lemurs, so Land of the Lemurs is your exclusive experience to mingle with the troop.

Guests visiting South Australia's Monarto Safari Park will be able to take a guided tour to the 3.5 hectare lemur habitat to walk among the lemur family. They will also visit the Tortoise research facility where radiated and Aldabra giant tortoises enjoy their life in the slow lane.

The troop is made up of 11 adults and four pups which have been born at Monarto Safari Park since the troop arrived .

The ring-tailed lemur is listed as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the radiated tortoise is listed as critically endangered. Animals on Madagascar continue to be threatened by habitat loss and poaching.

Each ticket to enter the Land of the Lemurs will help to support conservation work in Madagascar.

More News Stories

Land of the Lemurs is the first experience to open at Monarto Safari Park as part of the Wild Africa expansion as Clark explained, “Not only will it be an amazing way for our visitors to get up-close with a new species at Monarto Safari Park, but it is also the first experience to open in our Wild Africa precinct.''

Wild Africa is the large scale expansion of Monarto Safari Park with future stages to include habitats for roaming herds of giraffe , antelope and zebra alongside two hippos set to arrive at the zoo next year. It will also include overnight accommodation and new safari experiences. Further stages of Wild Africa are planned to open during 2023.

Other projects completed at the park this year include the opening of a new visitor centre and an expanded black rhinoceros habitat .

Our Favourite Ring-Tailed Lemur Fact

Ring-tailed lemurs come from a unique branch of the primate family tree known as the prosimians and are not considered to be a monkey or an ape .

Want to Learn about Lemurs?

Is a group of lemurs actually called a conspiracy? Do they like to move it, move it? Find out with our fact file.

Image: © Chester Zoo .

Copyright The Animal Facts 2023

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Monarto Conservation Park

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Around one hour’s dri­ve from the city of Ade­laide you will find the tran­quil refuge of Monar­to Con­ser­va­tion Park.

Sit­u­at­ed in the rain shad­ow of the South­ern Mount Lofty Ranges to the west, it has just over half the aver­age annu­al rain­fall of Ade­laide, and is con­sid­ered semi-arid – a stark con­trast to the near­by hills envi­ron­ment. The Riv­er Mur­ray is 15km to the east and Lake Alexan­d­ri­na is 15km south.

Hint­ing at the park’s geo­log­i­cal his­to­ry, sandy ridges in this area of the Mur­ray Plains reveal that it was once part of the ocean bed.

The thick­ets of mallee wood­land and dry heath­land pro­vide allur­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for those wish­ing to escape the hus­tle and mean­der amongst the veg­e­ta­tion in the hope of spot­ting south­ern scrub-robin and the shy heath­wren. If par­tic­u­lar­ly patient, vis­i­tors may also be reward­ed with a spot­ted har­ri­er hov­er­ing above the adja­cent pas­ture lands. A vari­ety of oth­er species have been record­ed in the park includ­ing the pur­ple-gaped hon­ey eater, spot­ted par­doldote, malleefowl, wee­bill and white-browed bab­bler. This park is a ​ ‘ birdo’s’ paradise!

Opening hours

Open dai­ly.

Contact details

Vis­i­tor infor­ma­tion, book­ings and park management:.

Nation­al Parks Wildlife Ser­vice South Aus­tralia River­land and Mur­ray­lands Region­al Office

28 Vaugh­an Tce, Berri

Phone: (+61 8) 8595 2111

Email: rm.​npws@​sa.​gov.​au

Emer­gency contacts:

Med­ical, fire (includ­ing bush­fire) and police emer­gency sit­u­a­tions Phone: Triple Zero (000)

Police Assis­tance Phone: 131 444 for non-urgent police assistance

Injured wildlife:

With­in the park Please con­tact Nation­al Parks Wildlife Ser­vice South Aus­tralia Berri office on (08) 8595 2111 or the after-hours duty offi­cer on 0417 192 335 (out­side of busi­ness hours).

Out­side of the park Please con­tact a local wildlife res­cue group 

When to visit

Spring is a love­ly time to vis­it to enjoy the bril­liant blos­som of flow­er­ing mallee species, as well as the oth­er veg­e­ta­tion com­mu­ni­ties includ­ing dry heath­land, native pines and broom­bush thick­ets. These veg­e­ta­tion com­mu­ni­ties are typ­i­cal of the area before Euro­pean set­tle­ment and farm­ing, and they pro­vide habi­tat for larg­er ani­mals such as the west­ern grey kan­ga­roo, the native mar­su­pi­al mouse, ground dwelling spi­ders and a vari­ety of bat species. You can also find more than 25 dif­fer­ent species of fun­gi just along the walk­ing track dur­ing spring!

Getting there

Dri­ve down the South East­ern Free­way ( M1 ) from Ade­laide towards Mur­ray Bridge. At approx­i­mate­ly 60km there is a turn off to the left to Monar­to South, take this turn off then turn right onto Fer­ries-McDon­ald Road and head south for 3km. There is a car park and access to a walk­ing trail from this point.

Pets not allowed

Dogs are not per­mit­ted in this park.

Dis­cov­er which parks you can walk your dog in on our find a park tool or read 12 dog-friend­ly walks in Ade­laide Parks by Good Liv­ing for inspiration.

Assistance dogs

Assis­tance dogs are per­mit­ted in most pub­lic places and are there­fore wel­come in South Australia’s parks and reserves. Assis­tance dogs must be appro­pri­ate­ly restrained on a lead and remain under your effec­tive con­trol at all times while in a park or reserve.

As per the dogs in parks and reserves pol­i­cy, if the dog is not an accred­it­ed assis­tance dog, they must be trained to assist a per­son with a dis­abil­i­ty to alle­vi­ate that dis­abil­i­ty and meet stan­dards of hygiene and behav­iour appro­pri­ate for a dog in a pub­lic place. How­ev­er, refusal may be giv­en if the per­son with the dis­abil­i­ty is unable to pro­duce evi­dence the dog is an assis­tance dog with the appro­pri­ate training.

Before tak­ing your assis­tance dog into a park that does not nor­mal­ly allow dogs, it is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed that you con­tact us so we can pro­vide you with the lat­est infor­ma­tion on any poten­tial haz­ards with­in spe­cif­ic parks that may affect your dog. Please con­tact the park via the con­tact details pro­vid­ed under the con­tact tab or con­tact the vis­i­tor ser­vice cen­tre via email or on Face­book .

Please come to the park pre­pared to be self reliant as there are no facil­i­ties locat­ed in the park.

Plants and animals

Flo­ra and fau­na species lists.

To down­load flo­ra (plants) and fau­na (ani­mals) species lists for this park, use the ​ ‘ Cre­ate Sim­ple Species List’ tab under ​ ‘ Flo­ra Tools’ or ​ ‘ Fau­na Tools’ in NatureMaps .

Useful information

• Parks man­age­ment plans
• SA Marine Parks
• Impor­tant: Col­lec­tion of fire­wood with­in Nation­al Parks is pro­hib­it­ed. Dead wood plays a vital role in pro­vid­ing shel­ter for ani­mals and adding nutri­ents to the soil.

Traditional Owners

First Nations peo­ples have occu­pied, enjoyed and man­aged the lands and waters of this state for thou­sands of gen­er­a­tions. For First Nations peo­ples, cre­ation ances­tors laid down the laws of the Coun­try and bestowed a range of cus­tom­ary rights and oblig­a­tions to the many Abo­rig­i­nal Nations across our state.

There are many places across the state that have great spir­i­tu­al sig­nif­i­cance to First Nations peo­ples. At some of these places, Abo­rig­i­nal cul­tur­al pro­to­cols such as restrict­ed access are pro­mot­ed, and vis­i­tors are asked to respect the wish­es of Tra­di­tion­al Owners.

In places where pro­to­cols are not pro­mot­ed vis­i­tors are asked to show respect by not touch­ing or remov­ing any­thing, and make sure you take all your rub­bish with you when you leave.

First Nations peo­ples con­tin­ue to play an active role in car­ing for their Coun­try, includ­ing in parks across South Australia.

• DEW Park management
• DEW Abo­rig­i­nal partnerships

Stay in the park

There is no camp­ing or accom­mo­da­tion avail­able with­in this park. 

Bushwalking

Monar­to loop walk (45 min, 1.2km).

An easy, short, loop walk on flat ter­rain in the north-east­ern cor­ner of the park. The trail is well marked and will take around 45 min­utes return depend­ing on how many birds you stop to look at!

Volunteering

Want to help.

To find out how you can help in this park or near­by, please vis­it Mur­ray­lands and River­land Land­scape Board – Vol­un­teer­ing

Want to join oth­ers and become a Camp­ground Host, Vol­un­teer Ranger, Park Friend or Cit­i­zen Scientist?

To find out more about vol­un­teer­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties with Nation­al Parks, please vis­it Vol­un­teer — Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice South Aus­tralia

Ensure that you:

• when hik­ing, wear stur­dy shoes, a hat and sunscreen
• be aware of weath­er con­di­tions and avoid walk­ing dur­ing the hottest part of the day
• make sure you have appro­pri­ate weath­er proof clothing
• car­ry enough water to be self-sufficient
• please be respect­ful of oth­er users at all times
• stay on the des­ig­nat­ed trails and con­nec­tor tracks for your own safe­ty, and pre­vent the spread of declared weeds to oth­er areas in the park
• ensure some­one knows your approx­i­mate loca­tion and expect­ed time of return
• take appro­pri­ate maps.
• Walk, hike or trek — what’s the difference?

Can I have a fire or barbecue?

• Wood fires, sol­id fuel, gas fires and liq­uid fuel fires are pro­hib­it­ed through­out the year.
• Ensure you are famil­iar with the fire restric­tions for this park.

Clo­sures and safety

This park is closed on days of Cat­a­stroph­ic Fire Dan­ger and may also be closed on days of Extreme Fire Danger.

You can deter­mine the cur­rent fire dan­ger rat­ing by check­ing the Fire Ban Dis­trict map on the CFS  website.

Check the CFS web­site or call the CFS Bush­fire Infor­ma­tion Hot­line 1800 362 361 for:

• Infor­ma­tion on fire bans and cur­rent fire conditions
• Cur­rent CFS warn­ings and incidents
• Infor­ma­tion on what to do in the event of a fire .

Lis­ten to your local area radio sta­tion for the lat­est updates and infor­ma­tion on fire safety.

Know before you go

Every Nation­al Park is dif­fer­ent, each has its own unique envi­ron­ment. It is impor­tant to be respon­si­ble while enjoy­ing all the park has to offer.

Please ensure that you:

• leave your pets at home
• do not feed birds or oth­er ani­mals, it pro­motes aggres­sive behav­iour and an unbal­anced ecology
• do not bring gen­er­a­tors (except where per­mit­ted), chain­saws or firearms into the park
• leave the park as you found it — there are no bins in nation­al parks, please come pre­pared to take your rub­bish with you.
• abide by the road rules (main­tain the speed limit)
• respect geo­log­i­cal and her­itage sites
• do not remove native plants
• are con­sid­er­ate of oth­er park users

Come and enjoy this park for free.

Camping and accommodation

This park is not includ­ed in the park pass system. 

• Which parks are includ­ed in the park pass system?

Acknowledgement of Country

The state government acknowledges Aboriginal people as the First Peoples and Nations of the lands and waters we live and work upon and we pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge and respect the deep spiritual connection and the relationship that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have to Country. We work in partnership with the First Peoples of South Australia and support their Nations to take a leading role in caring for their Country.