Taronga Western Plains Zoo appoints Steve Hinks as new director

While he admits the job has been a steep learning curve, Mr Hinks is no stranger to animal attractions. Before this role he was head of Merlin Entertainments, looking after four attractions in Sydney including Sydney Aquarium and Wild Life Sydney Zoo.

Dubbo is also familiar territory. Mr Hinks said he graduated from Charles Sturt University in Dubbo with a Masters of Business in 2013.

A move out of the city was something Mr Hinks and he and his wife Rebecca had been talking about for the past year.

“We have two young children, Olivia and Jamie, who are five and seven [years-old], and we just found the pace of life in Sydney and the amount of commuting time – we would both lose over two hours a day on our commute – and just the feeling that we were outsourcing parenting to before and after school care, it’s just no way to live a life. We want to spend that quality time as a family,” he said.

“For us leaving Sydney was a really attractive idea. It took a long time to take that from thinking about it to doing it but the opportunity with Taronga Western Plains Zoo answered the question of where we should go and it was the push we needed to make it a reality.”

His current commute? Four minutes.

Mr Hinks said no day was the same in the role. A large focus at the moment was dealing with the $9 million development of the African pridelands exhibit, he said, which is expected to be completed before Easter next year.

“For me at the moment my focus really is on getting under the skin of the site, getting the know the people, getting to know the product, getting to know our guests and the community and try to make sure I know what we really do well and where we can improve,” he said.

The zoo was in fantastic shape, Mr Hinks said, which was a credit to the staff who had worked at the attraction for the past 40 years, as well as those who worked there now.

“It’s great to be involved in such a great drawcard for this region and I get a huge kick seeing the faces of our guests when they have a such great time visiting the zoo,” the director said.

Mr Hinks officially started the role on October 9 and while it was still only early days, he said he was thrilled to be working at the zoo.​