The village of Healesville is in country Victoria, Australia about a 1 hour drive from Melbourne’s main business area. It is situated on the Watts River, that passes into the Yarra River. Healesville is usually most well-known for the zoo, Healesville Sanctuary. The town has got a resident population of 7589 in 2021, but that is frequently more if adding in the visitors. Healesville was first settled back in 1864 mostly as an accommodation site for the nearby goldfields as well as for construction of the Yarra Track and was named after Richard Heales who was the Premier of the state of Victoria from 1860 through to 1861. The township lies upon the ancestral territory of the native Wurundjeri people. A reserve for the local Aboriginal population named Coranderrk had been set up in 1863 just south from the main township. In addition to tourism the key employment within Healesville is dependant on sectors such as sawmilling, farming and wine. Healesville has become a visitor spot since the 1880s, together with the Grand Hotel becoming built in 1888, and the Gracedale House becoming built in 1889. Together with the Healesville Sanctuary, the the tourism industry is located about the wines and food industries in the Yarra Valley, with other destinations like the Badger Weir Picnic Area, Yarra Valley Railway as well as the Healesville Organic Market. There are also numerous eateries and restaurants, and volunteer-run events like the Healesville Music Festival, Open Studios, and the Yarra Valley Rodeo in which entice people to come during the day from Melbourne or even for a holiday. A tourism association was initially established within the 1920s to market the area. The town is the southerly conclusion of the Bicentennial Heritage Trail which has its north end at Cooktown, Queensland, just north of Cairns. The track is 5330 km making it the longest trail of its kind in the world.

The Healesville Sanctuary that has been previously referred to as Sir Colin MacKenzie Sanctuary is a nature park or zoo park having 100s of native Australian animals which are exhibited in a semi-open natural environment. Sir Mackenzie put together the Institute of Anatomical Research in 1920 on 78 acres of Coranderrk. In 1927 it was given to the Healesville Council becoming the Sir Colin MacKenzie Sanctuary in 1934. The Healesville Sanctuary is today one of the few zoos with an active platypus reproduction program, mating their very first in 1943. In 1978 the Zoo ended up being placed under the operations of the Victorian Zoological Parks and Gardens Board. The Healesville Sanctuary is placed in a natural bush ecosystem where trails wind through unique habitat places which showcases wallabies, wombats, emus, , kangaroos and over two hundred indigenous bird species. Tourists usually spend 2 to 3 hours for getting about the zoo and take in a flight show using indigenous birds. In 2009, the sanctuary ended up being endangered by the significant Black Saturday bushfires that ravaged a lot of the region. Many the Sanctuary’s endangered wildlife were evacuated to the main Melbourne Zoo at that time. The town has a effective Country Fire Authority volunteer fire brigade which was established in 1894 that had an important role in fighting the bush fires in the region during that time.