Australian Butterfly Sanctuary

A beautiful place to visit in Kuranda. Butterfly's were beautiful. The plants and fairy garden was also a major hit. However, as it's located in a tourist area, the place was busy. And I thought the enclosure would have been bigger. The breeding program out the back was good. Roughly $25 for entry.

Very disappointing. A bit confused how you can claim there are 1500 butterflies flying around. We estimate between 30-50 butterflies maximum. Definitely felt like a waste of money. Also disappointed that I pre-booked assuming it would be the better rate, but when I got there it was cheaper to purchase at the gate. First tourism experience I’ve had this happen with.

A beautiful experience with so many gorgeous butterflies! We took advantage of the free guided tour and enjoyed watching the staff working in the breeding area. It wasn't overly crowded, though we went there straight from the first train up. We headed back in the afternoon for the butterfly release, so pleased we were able to see that as well. You could rush through in half an hour, but consider taking a bit more time to relax and enjoy the quiet.

Such a fun experience in Kuranda! We opted to do this instead of the Koala preserve or Bird sanctuary. It was so fun to see the whole process of their sanctuary, and a beautiful large area to walk through with butterflies. Not too crowded, just a lovely spot.

Butterflies were great to see at the Australian butterfly. My son had worked out skill to get butterfly to land on target!

Super cool and beautiful. I didn’t have any interaction with the butterflies personally as they didn’t land on me, but I did see one land on my friend’s backpack, and another friend said some landed on her when she sat still for a while. Ended up finishing the butterfly sanctuary and leaving it in about 20 minutes or so.

The experience was very disappointing and the admission fee didn’t justify the experience. May daughter and I expected to see a wide range of butterflies but this simply wasn’t the case. It was a small area with many of the same species of butterfly. Our visit was short as a result. Sorry but we couldn’t recommend visiting the butterfly sanctuary.

Two adults and one teen son had the best time. The butterfly's were very active and do land on you. I also payed to release a butterfly which had just came out of its cocoon. It felt wonderful to release a butterfly out into the house for everyone to enjoy. Love butterfly's and this was the best place. The staff are friendly.

We visited with a gentleman in a wheelchair as a planned highlight of his Cairns holiday itinerary, having been assured it was accessible. Unfortunately, our experience was anything but smooth, proving to be a significant challenge rather than a relaxing visit. Narrow Paths: Almost immediately upon entry, it was clear that the paths were far too narrow in many sections. Turning the wheelchair around became an impossibility, essentially forcing us to continue forward whether safe or not. • Uneven and Hilly Terrain: The paths were not only uneven but featured significant slopes and hills. This made pushing the wheelchair extremely difficult. I consider myself to be quite strong, yet I struggled considerably to maneuver the chair through the enclosure. Someone with less physical strength would likely find it impossible to push a chair safely through the entire route. • Overall Effort: What should have been an enjoyable, serene experience was instead a strenuous workout, detracting significantly from the enjoyment of the sanctuary itself. When my manager politely raised these very serious concerns about the lack of true accessibility, the response we received was unacceptable. To be told that it was our responsibility to "walk through and check first" demonstrates a concerning lack of understanding and accountability regarding the needs of mobility-impaired visitors and a clear misrepresentation of their facilities. An establishment that claims to be wheelchair accessible should uphold that standard without guests having to perform pre-inspections. I am sure that for those on foot, the Kuranda Butterfly Sanctuary is a lovely and captivating place to visit. However, based on our firsthand experience, it is unequivocally NOT wheelchair accessible. This mislabeling is misleading, potentially dangerous, and incredibly frustrating for visitors who have made travel plans based on this information.

What a lovely so and so peaceful. The butterflies are very active in the day time and they do land on you if you stand still. There are plenty of butterflies to see and admire. A very good compound.

Went there while spending a day in Kuranda on a tour... There were very little different species there but ok just to spend a short time, nothing special but if u have kids , they will enjoy it.

Fantastic butterfly sanctuary, we took our two daughters who really enjoyed it, we’ve been to a few butterfly sanctuaries over the years and this is without doubt the best we’ve visited for the number and variety of butterflies, it’s obvious there is a lot of passion amongst the people working there they were all very lovely and welcoming, sadly we had to rush our visit because we needed to catch a train so whistled through in about 30 minutes but I reckon you could easily spend an hour there.

This was enjoyable, and it was fun and instructive to be immersed in a ton of butterflies. The sanctuary is pretty much a single location, with several ancillary displays. We had nine of us, which totaled a couple hundred bucks, which was a bit spendy for 45 minutes. It is well put together, though, and my rating is primarily due to the high cost.

When in Kuranda,make a stop at the butterfly sanctuary. You can see many beautiful species here in the lush enclosures. You can learn and read up about the different butterflies and their stages of development. Nice place. Closes at 15.30pm

I love butterflies! There was a great variety to see. Large and small. Even had some land on me. My truck was to wear something bright

Very underwhelming not worth the admission fee Very small and not a lot of butterflies to interact with. Museum did not have a lot of Australian butterflies

This was an enjoyable couple of hours for me and my niece and her young children. I had a senior discount and my niece had a local discount with sighting of her ID. There are 4 distinct areas including the large enclosure, hatching area and caterpillar display with stick insects, little fairy garden and a small museum display and shop. The large enclosure is worth two visits and sitting in a quiet place (particularly wearing bright colours) draws the butterflies to you. We saw a Hercules moth which had just hatched that morning. No Ulysses butterflies yet but we saw a bunch of those in Cairns Botanic Gardens

Beautiful Butterfly House. We were disappointed there were no Ulysses Butterflies in the aviary like the information pamphlet shows. I still recommend going as the aviary is beautiful with other butterflies 🦋

What a beautiful place to go, even in the rain. So many beautiful butterflies! And when it's raining they are low down and easier to see on the leaves and in the feeding stations. The staff are friendly and very informative about butterflies! Highly recommend a visit.

What a beautiful experience 🦋 So many butterfly’s to see and if you wear bright colours they actually land and sit on you!!! 😍 It was amazing!

This is a lovely place to visit, very relaxing. I recommend just taking some time to slow down her and take note of the beauty around you.

Fantastic! What a place to see beautiful butterflies!🦋 they wee gorgeous! Enclosure was warm so bring water. The butterflies land on you. Great photo ops. There is also a butterfly museum with some gorgeous big butterflies and moths. Really well worth the visit.

Who would have thought butterfly’s would be a highlight of our holiday! Even hubby enjoyed walking around and trying to find all the different ones. The kids had a blast and I could have stayed there all day!

This is a really good thing to do in Kuranda, they have many different species of butterfly there, and they fly all around you and often land on you. It’s also a great experience for kids, there were many there who enjoyed it a lot and gained a lot of knowledge about butterflies.

Not suitable for wheelchairs or anyone with mobility issues. Extremely narrow, steep, uneven and cracked paths, stair access only to all breeding areas and information and staggeringly in 2024….. no accessible or disabled toilet on the premises. Not even the entry or exit doors are manageable without help and I struggled to push a wheelchair through. We visited yesterday and whilst staff asked me to check out the area first and accepted our companion card, the only other interest shown to us was in asking me to complete a survey before leaving! At $24 a ticket, my manual wheelchair bound husband was only able to access a very short amount of the viewing area and sadly felt in the way of everyone else visiting. The sanctuary itself is tiny, in need of a massive upgrade to bring it into the 21st century and whilst Mother Nature is unpredictable, we saw very few butterflies at all and only two with any significant colour. Overpriced and incredibly disappointing, I’m unable to recommend it as it’s in need of a major refurb.

I've been to a few butterfly exhibits and this was by far the best. There were several types of butterflies and a lot of them.

Beautiful butterflies and a lot to.learn about them. Receptionist was nice but she didn't tell me I could get a discount of I went to Bird World afterwards and there was no sign saying so either, so I didn't get a receipt, when I needed one. They should probably address this as the Bird World cashier said it's a common issue. Liked the greenery and not too humid like some butterfly houses can be.

This place was fabulous. It was a rainy day and the butterflies were a little less active bit still it was einderful. Such an informative day learning all about butterflies, you just walk through beautiful gardens enjoying the butterflies and moths, just wonderful.

Absolutely amazing! There are thousands of butterflies in this aviary; you are guaranteed to have one land on you. The aviary is big enough so that there is enough room to stop and admire the butterflies, even in peak times. The pamphlet handed to you at the reception desk includes a photo of all the butterflies you will see, plus a butterfly landing pad which if you hold out, the butterflies will land on. I loved the little information signs around the aviary. I also loved how beautiful the whole aviary was; the bridge, the plants, the fairy garden. I had so much fun at the beautiful butterfly sanctuary!

We saw lots of colourful butterflies there. The guide was friendly and knowledgeable. The lab was an interesting place to visit, too.

LOVED IT. The whole family loved interacting with the butterflies and learning about all the different types. It was a lovely experience. Recommend going at the end of the day when it's quieter.

Beautiful butterflies in a well kept tropical garden layout. Don’t forget to pick up your discount voucher from the Information Centre.

Pleasant sanctuary to visit but hot and took less than 20 minutes to complete. Did see a few lovely butterflies which we might not otherwise have seen. Relatively expensive compared with other trips. Okay if money is not an issue.

Our Family loved it! The girls wore bright clothes to attract the Butterflies, it worked! Ricky gave an excellent explanation of what goes on in the facility. Very interesting! Thank you all!

5/5 we were so happy to come though the butterfly sanctuary again this wasn't planned and it was a nice day coming here thank

Not a lot of stunning Butterflies around and it was nearly lunchtime in the sunshine and heat thought more would of been flying around. Only saw 3 different ones that were impressive and worthy of photos. The walking path was a bit tricky in places being uneven surface and wet too Feel the 1 in NZ down Southland is more impressive

Butterflies Butterflies everywhere! What an amazing Sanctuary and so beautiful inside to walk around. Take your time and move slowly through the Sanctuary and you will see more than you could ever imagine. So great to see the Butterflies being looked after so well. You will leave with a better respect for these colourful and gentle beauties.

butterflies are one of my favourite things - this place is so worth a visit will return to kuranda to see this again

Despite it being busy and Covid rules (and this was managed well) we found our visit to be a delight. After chasing butterflies all around Nth Qld for photos, they were all here, flitting around and providing us with so many photo opportunities. So many butterflies including lots of Ulysses butterflies right in front of us, many landing on us whilst we were wandering. A very enjoyable experience, for adults and kids.

There were so many different colours & shapes of butterflies. It was so cool to have them flying around you. Take your time to soak up the experience, however if you're on a tour make sure you keep an eye on the time. My teenage daughters loved it just as much as I did. And the staff were friendly too.

I would thoroughly recommend a visit to this Sanctuary if visiting Kuranda village. As well as getting up close to a wide range of species, the centre is a good educational experience as well. Your ticket lasts all day, so you can pop in and out any time. Great work guys!

Amazing can spend as much time as you like and free re entry all day to go back as many times as you like

A lovely little butterfly house with many butterflies (unfortunately they are having real trouble with the big blue Ulysses butterflies so none there, though we spotted a few around Kuranda Village). Plenty of birdsongs and other varieties and some interesting information and trivia along the way. The Goliath moths in the separate enclosure were something to see, along with the caterpillars and cocoons showing the lifecycle stages. A touch pricey for the time it takes but a good experience.

This was a well maintained, wonderful environment to see and interact with several species of butterflies.

This was a really cool little sanctuary to visit. It was incredible to see so many butterflies in one spot. Here, you can learn about butterflies, and also learn about the process they go through from caterpillar to butterfly. Definitely worth seeing while you’re in Kuranda!

underrated must go cairns attraction so many butterflies color paradise family fun loved the experience

We really enjoyed seeing so many species. Guided tour was very informing. Got really close to them. Just like bees, butterflies are so important to our future existence.

Enjoyed this visit and got some wonderful up close photographs of butterflies you may never see otherwise. Unfortunately as there had been a cyclone through a week before, the humidity was extreme so we could not stay in there for long. But worth the visit and I am sure the kids will love the gift shop.

We drove from Port Douglas and enjoyed the trip down. The butterflies were beautiful and we loved walking amongst them. There was lots of information which was fascinating to read and we enjoyed visiting the lab and finding out about the life cycle of the butterflies. A really beautiful experience.