Thousands bid farewell to Manly Sea Life Sanctuary
ABOUT 3500 people turned up for one final visit to Manly Sea Life Sanctuary over the weekend, as the popular tourist attraction closes for good after 55 years.
Manly
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THOUSANDS of people turned up for one final visit to Manly Sea Life Sanctuary over the weekend.
The popular tourist attraction closed its doors for the last time on Sunday, bringing an end to its 55-year history.
Manly’s Ella Aird and her one-year-old daughter Florence were the aquarium’s very last visitors.
Mrs Aird and Florence had annual passes to the aquarium and would usually visit once a week.
“It has been such a good, fun activity for her (Florence),” Mrs Aird said.
“She is always excited to go and she loves pointing out the sharks and turtles.”
Mrs Aird said there was also a statue of a mermaid that Florence had been afraid of getting close to every time she visited — until Sunday.
“On the last day she leaned over and blew it a kiss goodbye,” she said.
Senior operations manager Ashley Hayes said about 3500 people visited the sanctuary on the weekend.
“Of course there was sadness, being that we were closing, but when you’ve got so much support from the community it makes it easier,” she said.
“There was a lot of emotion from the guests as well — so many people came out and told us their favourite stories (about the sanctuary) from when they were younger.
“The team feel so much love from the community right now and we can’t express how grateful we are.”
Ms Hayes said the staff will now look to begin the transportation of the animals to other Sea Life locations.
Transportation of the 2000 creatures is expected to commence next week and take up to three months to complete.
