Robbo, Phillip Island’s famous sulphur crested cockatoo has died, at the age of 97, at the Rhyll Wild Food Farm and Café at Rhyll.
Robbo moved into his new environment three years ago, after delighting visitors to the Grand Prix Circuit’s Visitor’s gardens for five decades.
Jude Mayall, who runs the Wildlife Food Farm and Cafe, built a special enclosure for Robbo when a new home was needed for him.
“He settled in with us super quickly. He just loved having people around, and everyone loved him,” Jude said.
“He came with a very “colourful” vocabulary, had a wonderful personality, and was a great favourite with our visitors. He was a great mimicker. When visitors laughed, he laughed right back with them.”
Robbo had free rein of the farm café environs after being let out to wander each day.
He got on well with the chooks, but swore ferociously at the purple hens and Cape Barren geese when they crossed his path.
He developed a close bond with manager Sam Ruzicka, and loved hopping on his shoulder or cuddling under his arm as they walked around.
It was Sam who found Robbo unresponsive in the cafe’s grounds.
It appeared he simply keeled over and died while walking around.
“Everyone here is terribly upset,” said Jude.
“It is amazing how a bird could have such a big impact. But he did. He had a big bold personality and bought a lot of joy to a lot of people.”
It was the same story at the Grand Prix Circuit, where Robbo drew fans in their thousands to visit him in his aviary over the 50 plus years he lived there.
Stolen
Robbo’s long life was not without drama. He was stolen from his aviary home in 2013 after someone cut the padlock on his cage.
Police were called and appeals to find him posted on Facebook.
Robbo made headlines two months later when he was found alive and well in a backyard in the Sydney suburb of Marrickville, by NSW Police acting on a tipoff.
To check the bird was in fact the missing Robbo, track manager Fergus Cameron last week recalled smart technology clinched the long distance identification process: his carer Mick Cleary hooked up with him on a Facetime chat.
Circuit staff in 2013 were staggered at the outpouring of support when Robbo was first stolen, and again when he was found.
“We knew people liked Robbo, but we had no idea he was such an integral part of the visitor centre,” staff member Peter Mitchell said at the time.
“The avalanche of likes and shares exceeded the posts around world champions at the track.”
Robbo, by now enjoying celebrity status, was safely returned under the supervision of professional pet carriers.
In 2013 Fergus Cameron knew Robbo for 30 years, and described him as a unique and special bird.
“He arrived in the 1970s when Len Lukey built the visitor gardens, including a couple of large aviaries. There was an attempt at one point to put him in with other species for company, but he was very unhappy about that. He clearly wanted his own aviary back. So I recovered him by climbing up a ladder and bringing him down. I was rewarded with a very sharp bite.
“He was wonderful with children in particular, and was always disappointed when they left.”
Robbo had a long list of carers over the decades. Mick Cleary was the longest, caring for him at the circuit from 2006 to 2020.
Robbo’s laugh always put a smile on his face.
"He would chat away all day as I worked in the garden. And he especially loved his trips in the car over to see the vet for his regular checkups.”
But he also had a wicked streak.
Mick arrived one morning in the early dawn, in the still and quiet, a sea mist blanketing the gardens.
Out of the gloom and eerie silence suddenly came a very loud and evil cackle.
“I jumped three feet in the air on that occasion.”
He now lies buried under his favourite wattle tree.