The phenomenon known as ‘urbex’, short for urban exploring, has been popular for quite some time now. Professional and amateur photographers or videographers explore abandoned buildings and once-popular attractions, which now look completely desolate and empty.
Whether it’s the Chernobyl aftermath, an abandoned warehouse, an ancient cinema, or even a closed wildlife park, there’s always something interesting to spot if you look in the right places.
Luke McPherson from Victoria, Australia, decided to revisit the now-defunct Australian Wildlife Wonderland park in Bass.
It has been completely abandoned since 2012, but the man still has a lot of good memories of the wildlife park from when he was still a little boy.
Now all grown up, he was very intrigued by the idea to discover the ruins of this abandoned place, and he also had no idea what he’d stumble upon there.
Back in 2018, Luke decided to take his smartphone camera and film his entire trip. He posted the footage to YouTube, which only recently went viral again as it has resurfaced across numerous social media platforms and pages.
Just minutes after he entered the abandoned park, Luke found something absolutely incredible.
He couldn’t believe his eyes and was in complete shock when he spotted a great white shark.
At first, he spotted an absolutely humongous tank, and it was filled with a green, dirty liquid. Because this area was so huge, he actually didn’t notice the great white shark at first.
There were a bunch of educational displays, chairs, signs, and trash in the room as well, and Luke was quite flabbergasted when he noticed the long-deceased great animal in the tank.
You can hear the man audibly gasping in the footage as he sees the remains of this absolutely huge shark, measuring at 16.5 feet. The murky liquid was a mixture of water and formaldehyde, and the shark – who was named Rosie – was taxidermied.
“It was just amazing that the shark tank was just in perfect condition,” the explorer said in his video.
It turns out that the Australian Wildlife Wonderland park has actually been the source of quite some controversy.
Rosie was actually captured back in the year 1998 during a fishing expedition.
She was only planned to stay there temporarily but ended up staying there forever.
After she passed away, the staff made sure to keep her body in good condition, so it could be used for a public display at museums or wildlife centers such as this one. However, this wildlife center closed back in 2012.
Even though it hasn’t been confirmed, it was reportedly shut down because it didn’t comply with the Australian Wildlife Act.
According to The Rainforest Site, the living animals were transferred to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but Rosie had to stay there. All these years, the great white shark just floated there in her tank, which wasn’t in the best shape.
“Due to vandals, the tank is now smashed and Rosie is no longer fully submerged,” Luke said in his video.
“Due to the operator of this park not being able to obtain the license needed to run this park, they were evicted and surrendered all the animals to the rspca. Since then this park has just been sitting, nothing so far has been done with it. There’s no news on if its being sold or going to be turned into something else.”
The discovery has also gathered the attention of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.
“If no one comes to preserve the shark, more liquid will evaporate, her condition will worsen, and she will most likely be destroyed,” their website writes.
Be sure to watch the almost half-hour discovery video of the Australian wildlife park in the video below.
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