Unless you suffer from Lepidopterophobia, a visit to the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary is a must on a holiday in far north Queensland. The sanctuary in Kuranda, half an hour from Cairns, is the largest in Australia and houses up to 2000 tropical butterflies in a glass aviary filled with lush rainforest plants growing around a waterfall and trickling stream.
The butterflies are all local species and include the bright blue Ulysses and the green and yellow Cairns Birdwing, the largest butterfly in Australia. Inside the aviary these delicate insects flutter from plant to plant, stopping only to feed at the nectar stations, to lay eggs or to rest.
They are attracted to bright colours and those wearing red, pink or white will soon find themselves wearing butterflies like living jewels.
Guides are available to take visitors on walks through the aviary. They describe the butterfly’s life cycle and explain how the nectar stations work. The tour also includes a visit to the breeding laboratory, where eggs are stored after being collected from the aviary. Children and adults alike are fascinated by the caterpillars which are hand reared until they become chrysalises. When the new butterflies emerge they are released back into the aviary where the life cycle begins again.
The life span of a butterfly is partly dictated by its appearance. Those with dull colours will live longer while the spectacularly coloured varieties have shorter life expectancies. This is because the bright colours are more attractive to predators and the butterflies need to be moving constantly to avoid becoming another animal’s lunch. They simply wear out faster.
Unlike the butterflies, time isn’t a factor for visitors and you can stay as long as you like in the aviary. The butterflies will always make you feel welcome.
*Lepidopterophobia: Fear of butterflies and moths
Wow, this is fascinating!
Thanks Elisabet. I’m pleased you enjoyed this story.
Thank you for sharing this experience with us. The photos are lovely, and I would feel like I’d entered heaven being able to visit there. 🙂
Thanks Judy. It was quite lovely. I have many more photos with blurry butterflies flying by. It was hard to capture them unless they were resting!
Great post and photos. I had a chance to visit this butterfly sanctuary years ago and loved it. My favorite part was all the butterflies landing on me. Too fun.
I’m glad you enjoyed revisiting your happy memories with me. I was amazed by how many different butterflies there were in the aviary.
I never knew Lepidopterophobia meant that! I love butterflies, and so does my boy… except when they flap right in our faces! The Australian Butterfly Sanctuary looks like such a wonderful place to visit, I can imagine it’s very peaceful
I think Monkey would be enchanted by the butterflies and if he stood still long enough they would soon be landing on him.
We have a large butterfly sanctuary here too – your beautiful photos have just inspired me to go for another visit!
I could easily visit this place again and again. It’s just magical watching the butterflies and there are so many of them. The only problem is they don’t stop long enough to get good photos. We have many blurry ones.
Cool place. RHS Wisley (my favourite garden) have a ‘butterflies in the hot house’ during February, it’s a lovely place to visit though I have to say my butterfly photos have been atrocious!
If the butterflies were a little more cooperative the photos would turn out better. We took lots of photos but most of them are just a blur.
I love butterflies and butterfly houses – they are such beautiful, delicate creatures. I’ve not been lucky enough to have one land on me, but maybe I wasn’t wearing the correct colours!
My white hat was like a beacon to the butterflies and at one stage there were so many on it other people were taking photos! In the brochure, their advice was to wear red, pink or white…must be the butterflies’ favourite colours.
How amazing to be covered in butterflies! Next time I go to a butterfly house I will try and remember to wear white I think.
It worked for me!
This sanctuary is awesome. We’ve had a lot of butterflies here lately but it’s very difficult to capture them on camera. I might start walking around with red, pink or white on and see if they’ll stop on me for a while 😉
It’s worth a try!
Aren’t butterflies just gorgeous?! I love how colourful they are. What a gorgeous idea!
It was such a treat to see so many butterflies in one place.
What lovely creatures, aren’t they? I never realised that about the brighter ones wearing out first, but it makes sense when you think about it. 😦 We have a butterfly house not too far from us and I keep forgetting to go. It closes soon, for the season, I think.
I suppose butterflies are like the rest of us and tend to shut down a little in the winter. Although here where our winters are not severe we still see them around.