Koala Farm, Adelaide

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| mark-coord1 = {{coord|-34.9142 | 138.5996}}

| mark-title1 = Snake Park 1927–1934

| mark-coord2 = {{coord|-34.9125 | 138.6013}}

| mark-title2 = Koala Farm 1934–1960

| caption = Approximate locations only

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Minchin was born in Adelaide, son of the director of the Adelaide Zoo, and was educated at St Peter's College. In 1921, he was made responsible for exporting Australian animals to zoos overseas{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63189637 |title=Exporting Kangaroos |newspaper=The Register (Adelaide) |volume=LXXXVI |issue=25,317 |location=South Australia |date=2 August 1921 |accessdate=21 November 2020 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} then, in 1924–1925, he went overseas collecting animals for the Zoo.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article57459261 |title=Arrivals at the Zoo |newspaper=The Register (Adelaide) |volume=LXXXIX |issue=25,951 |location=South Australia |date=29 February 1924 |accessdate=21 November 2020 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129780335 |title=Animals for Zoo Held Up |newspaper=The News (Adelaide) |volume=V |issue=686 |location=South Australia |date=5 October 1925 |accessdate=21 November 2020 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}} He started a private herpetological collection, with which in March 1927 he founded Adelaide's Snake Park on a {{convert|0.2|acre}} section of the Park Lands.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article54099994 |title=The Snake Park |newspaper=The Register (Adelaide) |volume=XCII |issue=26,704 |location=South Australia |date=19 March 1927 |accessdate=21 November 2020 |page=13 |via=National Library of Australia}} The section, which he rented from the Adelaide City Council, lay near Pennington Garden, between the University Oval and King William Road{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48856331 |title=Views and Comments |newspaper=The Advertiser (Adelaide) |location=South Australia |date=17 April 1940 |accessdate=21 November 2020 |page=22 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131433017 |title=Snake Park Lease Renewed; Six Councillors Oppose |newspaper=The News (Adelaide) |volume=XXXVI |issue=5,463 |location=South Australia |date=28 January 1941 |accessdate=21 November 2020 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} (now part of Park 12/Karrawirra). Part of its mission was to collect snake venom for antivenom serum manufacture, but from 1936, when the Snake Park had been incorporated into the Koala Farm, only non-venomous snakes were held.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131547579 |title=Snakes Alive! |newspaper=The News (Adelaide) |volume=XXXIV |issue=5,155 |location=South Australia |date=1 February 1940 |accessdate=21 November 2020 |page=18 |via=National Library of Australia}}

In 1931, he contracted polio, which left him crippled and dependent on crutches, later a wheelchair.

He had a property {{convert|50 |miles}} somewhere north of Adelaide, where he bred{{efn|Minchin successfully bred koalas but was not the first in Adelaide to do so; that was Tom Paine Bellchambers (died 1929) in 1927.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48291672 |title=Koala Bear Farm |newspaper=The Advertiser (Adelaide) |volume=95 |issue=29,437 |location=South Australia |date=16 February 1953 |accessdate=21 November 2020 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}}} and studied koalas that he progressively introduced to the Snake Park, which in March 1934 become a section of the "Koala Bear Farm".{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128851082 |title=Advertising |newspaper=The News (Adelaide) |volume=XXII |issue=3,333 |location=South Australia |date=26 March 1934 |accessdate=21 November 2020 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} In 1936, he applied to the Council for an increase in area for the "Farm" to around one acre.

The source of his first koalas has not yet been found. The species was not uncommon in South Australia before the arrival of foxes and "sportsmen" with rifles, but 100 years later was believed locally extinct apart from three discrete locations not divulged to the public.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article147329846 |title=Native Bears in South-East |newspaper=The Narracoorte Herald |volume=LXI |issue=6173 |location=South Australia |date=28 February 1936 |accessdate=21 November 2020 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article132039598 |title=Colonies of Koalas Still Exist in South Australian Bush |newspaper=The News (Adelaide) |volume=XXVII |issue=4,171 |location=South Australia |date=3 December 1936 |accessdate=21 November 2020 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206850481 |title=Australian Oddities |newspaper=The Age |issue=27419 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=6 March 1943 |accessdate=21 November 2020 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}} Minchin may have received some of those brought into South Australia from Queensland in 1937.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196475650 |title=Koala Bears for South Australia |newspaper=The Telegraph (Brisbane) |location=Queensland, Australia |date=18 March 1937 |accessdate=21 November 2020 |page=17 |via=National Library of Australia}}

The "Farm" was popular with children, as apart from koalas and snakes, it boasted "Sally" the Timor pony, "Porker" the buckjumping pig,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129299723 |title=Snake Park Koala Farm |newspaper=The News (Adelaide) |volume=XXV |issue=3,827 |location=South Australia |date=26 October 1935 |accessdate=22 November 2020 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}} and a performing seal in its own pool with a {{convert|30|ft}} diving tower. Minchin attracted celebrity visitors, including Noël Coward{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article244585400 |title=Mr Coward Said "Ow" |newspaper=The Herald |issue=19,838 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=12 December 1940 |accessdate=21 November 2020 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}} and the Duke and Duchess of Kent.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58856306 |title=Duke Amused |newspaper=The Mail (Adelaide) |volume=23 |issue=1,168 |location=South Australia |date=13 October 1934 |accessdate=21 November 2020 |page=14 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52148664 |title=Duchess of Kent Wants Koala |newspaper=The Examiner (Tasmania) |volume=XCVI |issue=103 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=10 July 1937 |accessdate=21 November 2020 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}} Among other attractions was a blubber melting pot, a relic of whaling days, which Minchin recovered from Kangaroo Island,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36361886 |title=Relic Of Kangaroo Island's Early History |newspaper=The Advertiser (Adelaide) |volume=91 |issue=28240 |location=South Australia |date=12 April 1949 |accessdate=22 November 2020 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} and a renovated coach, originally owned by Governor Hindmarsh, drawn by Timor ponies.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129986793 |title=Rides in 1840 Coach on Her 103rd Birthday |newspaper=The News (Adelaide) |volume=46 |issue=7,084 |location=South Australia |date=16 April 1946 |accessdate=22 November 2020 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}

In the 1930s, Minchin made substantial donations to the Adelaide Zoo, of which his brother Ronald was director. The "monkey paddock", open to the sky and holding some 50 rhesus monkeys, was his gift,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article243106482 |title=Paddock Full of Rhesus |newspaper=The Herald |issue=17,893 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=20 September 1934 |accessdate=21 November 2020 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}} and its popularity helped reverse the zoo's fortunes. Minchin's other enterprises include an Aquarium (1933–1946) on the Glenelg jetty.

Minchin never married; he died on 1 August 1963 and was buried at the North Road Cemetery near the grave of his father.{{cite book|author=Joyce Gibberd |title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: Minchin, Alfred Keith (1899–1963) |chapter=Minchin, Alfred Keith (1899–1963) |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/minchin-alfred-keith-7796/text13273 |year=1986 |access-date=21 November 2020}}

As a result of his breeding program, Minchin was able to release many koala families into the wild, notably along the Willson River, near Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74644031 |title=Koala Bears for K.I. |newspaper=The Advertiser (Adelaide) |location=South Australia |date=3 December 1948 |accessdate=22 November 2020 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}} They were a considerable tourist attraction to the island until the late 1990s when, due to overpopulation, both koalas and the manna gums, on which they relied for food, were visibly dying. Scientists recommended a significant culling, but rather than risk a hostile public reaction, the South Australian Government embarked on a program of surgical sterilization of adult females by veterinarians.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/28/kangaroo-island-koala-cull-rejected-by-south-australian-government|title=Kangaroo Island koala cull rejected by South Australian government |last=Wahlquist |first=Calla |date=28 August 2017 |work=The Guardian |access-date=22 November 2020}}

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• Koala Park Sanctuary, Sydney
• Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Brisbane

Category:History of Adelaide

Category:Adelaide Zoo

Category:1936 establishments in Australia

Category:1960 disestablishments in Australia