Melbourne trip (Day 1 Story 7) Penguin Parade, Phillip Island, Australia

Penguin Parade is one of the top attractions of Phillip Island. It has one of the largest Little Penguin colony.

Let's start the story beginning from Penguin Parade visitor center.







The expected penguin arrival time is displayed. Visitor can feel free to do other things while waiting for it. You may check the information online too.


The 3 park pass we bought entitled each of us a cup of hot drink and a MP4 player recorder which play information on the little cutie penguin. There are two places to redeem the coffee, either at the food stall or the cafe. We redeem at the food stall next to the MP4 player counter.





There are few languages available in the MP4 audio illustration. We listen to it while visit the penguin world exhibition. One need to sign a small note of agreement when redeem the MP4 audio player. A small amount will be charged to credit card if visitor doesn't return it or returning in bad condition.

If you love to collect press-a-penny souvenir, you may find one here. Feed the machine with AUD 2 coin, follow the instruction to get one. I seldom collect it now, fridge magnet is what I will usually keep now.


There are souvenir shops here, for one to spend time before proceed to the penguin parade :)






If you love to send postcards, sending a postcard from here will leave a unique penguin stamp chop on the postcards. I do not have my friend address list with me. I am sorry dude.

The penguin world exhibition is interesting, we can learn more about the Little penguin here.Map below shows the Little Penguin track.


There are many facts information. Have you heard why a penguin front body is white while back is dark in color? There are two version of answer:
Cold joke version

This is because penguin hand is not long enough to reach the back, so they can clean just the front :p

Scientific answer I learn from the penguin world:

This is to protect the penguin. When they swim in the water, to other fish, penguin white front color is mimic to the sunlight, thus other water creature won't be able to spot the penguin easily. As for the bird do not live in the water, they will not be able to find penguin easily since the dark color looks alike with seawater color from top.

Follow the exhibition and maybe you will see some penguin in the penguin hole :)




It's time to get closer with the penguin, and we were reminded of neither photography nor video recording.



At night, it is quite cold especially with the strong wind, it is advisable to prepare yourself with enough clothing. There are many options to get closer with the penguin, check it out. We bought the Penguin Plus.


We seat at the platform while waiting for the penguin to arrive. We were not the earliest, and those corner best seats are taken. But that's okay, I would like to share some tips here. Sit on the top row, so you can see the penguin reach the beach, wash themselves and then walk to their burrows. Equip yourself with a binocular if you have one :) The first row can't see the penguin arriving at the beach because the view was blocked by the bushes. With my binocular, I can roughly see the penguin play in the water at the beach, before walk to their burrows. Of course, when the sky turn darker, the binocular will be useless. Around at least 15min to half an hour after that, the penguin reach near penguin plus platform. To watch the penguin closer, Penguin Plus visitor can walk around the fence indicated by the blue line.I am not sure if the blue track is used by other ticket type or not. The Little Penguin walk for a while, then they stop, maybe rest or find their burrow, then they continue to walk, to walk back to their own burrow. Some of them climb up hill to reach their burrow, some is just on the ground. I can see some penguin is really full, their stomach must have filled with lots of fish :) When they walk, they looks like imbalance but they won't fell down :p

No camera nor video recording is allowed. Unfortunately I was an Asian lady took picture using a high end phone, few times. *sigh*. Is she don't understand English? But I guess few of them came with a tour guide. I hope she realized one day those gadget lighting harm the animal eyes and will bring fear to the wild life. Hope she will respect wild life more in the future. It was too cold and I wish to leave asap, but I should have tell her "No photo please." Before we get into our car, checked the car if any penguin underneath :D

On the next day at Koala Conservation Center, the officer is kind to share information below with me. Wow, 788 penguin at the night. He shared with me sometimes it could be more than a thousand and close to 2000.



Before I forgot, for the 3 park pass, the penguin parade ticket must be used on the day of park pass. However, the churchill island and koala conservation center ticket is valid for 3 months. Check out the terms and condition when you purchase the ticket.