Chad Staples can't wait for Sunday when the zoo he has tended and brought back to life will finally reopen.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Since the big fire on New Year's Eve, the director of Mogo Wildlife Park has lived with two months of relative quiet - including the quiet of the tills and ticket machines.
The tourist destination popular with Canberrans has been shut since the drama of five days of fire fighting.
It finally reopens to the public on March 1.
"We need the energy of people coming to enjoy quality time with animals and sitting and watching them and enjoying them," he said.
The return of Canberrans is important for the whole Batemans Bay area, he said.
"The Bay has always been so important to Canberra - a home from home. We are looking forward to people coming and seeing that we are still here."
He remembers vividly the last day of business - the business of survival.
"New Year's Eve was a pretty crazy day. We had fires completely surrounding us - about 80 per cent of the fences ended up actually being completely burned to the ground.
They were alerted to the danger of fire by text messages at about dawn on the big fire day.
"We were told to head to the beach," the zoo director said.
But zoo-keepers came in to make sure the animals were safe.
Mid-morning, they knew that it was a real danger.
"We watched the colour change, going from yellows to orange to reds and then we saw the flames," he said.
"We were then fighting fires on every square inch for the next four hours."
In the afternoon, the wind changed and the danger intensified. For the next five days, the zoo staff were putting out spot fires. The animals were secured in the safest places.
Dangerous animals like lions and gorillas were penned in their dens and kept out of the open display areas.
Giraffes were allowed to roam paddocks so they could use their natural instinct for survival to go to the safest areas
"It was a horrific day and only due to the amazing zoo-keepers here in Mogo Wildlife Park that the place survived.
"And since then, it's been a lot of clean-up, a lot of trying to get back to normal and a lot of repairs of what was damaged."
The animals were saved.
"There wasn't more we could do to protect them on the day and after New Year's Eve our biggest responsibility was getting things back to normal."
The zoo's big period is between Boxing Day and Australia Day so the closure has hit it hard.
What has it cost? "It's a big number. Anywhere here on the south coast being closed for January and February is pretty difficult.
"I'm more interested in opening now because the place has been closed for too long.
"My absolute favourite was walking around the zoo after hours while we were closed and there was no one else here except me and the animals."
But now is the time for business - busy-ness - people thrilling to animals up close.
"It's very special."