Ballina – Macadamia Castle

When I was growing up, this place was called “Knockrow Castle” on account of it being in Knockrow and looking like a castle. A lot has changed since then. There are new owners who have ploughed a lot of money into developing it into quite a nice family attraction.

The Castle is inland a bit from Ballina, on the highway to Byron Bay. You can’t miss it. The walls have been crenelated to look like an old English castle. Even more exciting is the giant sized knight standing right beside the road. It’s all a bit tacky, but it’s been a landmark in the area for donkey’s years.

In the grounds of the castle are quite a few interesting attractions. The original attraction was a putt-putt golf course. It’s still there, but has been slightly improved over time. The holes are quite fun to play. There are no moving parts or anything terribly difficult, but it’s a bit of fun. An added advantage, is that you can play as many holes as you like. What a bargain!

The main attraction these days, is the animals. There’s a huge number of critters in the gardens surrounding the castle. For someone who’s never seen Australian animals up close, this is a great introduction to them.

There are two walk in aviaries. One has a number of very loud, quite friendly lorikeets. The other, bigger aviary, has a large range of different birds. They’re not the sort of birds that come and sit on your shoulder and say “Polly want a cracker”, but it’s good to see them without a cage in between.

There’s also a snake and reptile part. Luckily, those cages are not walk through. Australia has the most venomous snakes in the world, so it’s good that they’re confined behind glass.

Down a long path, there’s a mob of kangaroos with a few emus thrown in. Both these animals are on the Australian coat of arms. This is because neither can walk backwards, implying it’s only onwards for Australia. They also taste very nice and are widely available to eat in gourmet restaurants and specialist menus. I wonder if that gives Australia the record for having the tastiest national symbols?

The last native Australian animal in the park is a wombat. As expected, when I was there, it was asleep in it’s pen after eating too much and having a bit too much nocturnal activity. It wasn’t nosy at all – very disappointing!

In addition to the native animals, there’s a whole bunch of farm animals – pigs, goats, cows, sheep and ducks. At the right time of day, you can go in an pet them all, which is fun if you like touching smelly dirty farm animals. The kids seem to love it!

When all the animals related high jinks are over, you exit through the well stocked shop. Who would have thought there could be so many Macadamia related products! Oh, in case you didn’t know, the Macadamia is actually a native Australian plant. Growing up, we called them bush nuts and picked them up in the scrub. Still very tasty!

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by Macadamia Castle. In it’s prior existence as Knockrow Castle, it was pretty lame. The modern version is actually quite fun and a great way to fill in time when you get bored of the beach, shopping or your relatives.