The Alice Springs Reptile Centre is a private property that houses the largest collection of reptiles in the state of the Northern Territories. Here you can see the perentie lizard, cloaked lizard, molochs, large and small peonies and venomous snakes including the taipan, false cobra, the Australian spiny-tailed snake and the very dangerous royal brown snake. The centre is a popular tourist attraction, which also hosts Environmental education programmes.
All of the centre's "cold-blooded" inhabitants are native Australians. Many were caught in the homes of local residents, in backyards or brought in from areas that were set on fire as part of the under a special programme were set on fire to prevent devastating summer fires. Some reptiles, incidentally, were then returned to the wild. The centre's staff also goes on call to homes where venomous snakes and capture them.
Founded by Rex Neindorf, a former reptile trainer, the centre was opened in January 2000. Today it houses more than 100 reptiles, representing 30 species, which frequently appear on television in documentaries and in the pages of educational magazines such as "National Geographic".
In 2002, the centre opened an exposition dedicated to marine crocodiles, and in 2006 - an exhibition of fossil remains, telling about the evolution of reptiles over the last 200 million years. Interestingly, the sponsor of this exhibit was sponsored by the Australian Tourism Development Association.
Several times in its history, the centre's inhabitants have been attacked by humans. So, in 2004, two 13-year-old boys burst into the center and attacked a crocodile with batons, breaking its teeth and inflicting several wounds. In 2008, another 7-year-old boy broke into the centre after closing time and carried out a massacre that killed 13 animals! The dead included, a 20-year-old Spencer's varan, a tortoise, a bearded lizard and a mole lizard. The juvenile criminal threw some of the animals over the fence into the enclosure of a 200-kilogram saltwater crocodile. After this incident, which received wide publicity in many countries around the world, the Northern Territory state seriously revised the punishment for offenders under 10 years of age.
