David Fleay Wildlife Park will have close to $1m spent to revamp the attraction in a bid to lure more visitors

FOR a decade David Fleay Wildlife Park has struggled to attract visitors, but not a $900,000 government grant could turn it all around.

A new masterplan has been created to attract visitors to the David Fleay Wildlife Park. Wildlife Ranger Julia Terry with Lilly the ringtail possum Picture: JERAD WILLIAMS

MORE than $900,000 in State Government funding will attempt to breathe life into the David Fleay Wildlife Park — which has seen visitor numbers tumble from around 50,000 a year to about 20,000 a year in the past decade.

The funding comes after a multi-million dollar master plan for the park was launched earlier this year, which will see a new amphitheatre and stage area built for interactive displays.

A new canoe-landing facility so groups can “paddle to the park” from the Tallebudgera Active Recreation Centre will also be built, while the park will develop new wildlife encounters to give visitors a more interactive experience with animals.

Ranger in charge Jacqui Seal said the master plan had been devised over a year to try to bring visitors back to the park.

“We have gone through some hard times and visitation has dropped but releasing this master plan and incorporating a number of different concepts to improve the place is hopefully going to improve visitation,” she said.

National Parks and Recreation Minister Steve Dickson said the new facilities at the park would be completed by March.

“When I came into this role over two-and-a-bit years ago the advice I got from the department was ‘shut it down, we’re burning a million dollars a year’,” he said.

“I morally and environmentally could never do that.”