According to records, the 40-year-old pachyderm objected to this method of transport - but quietened down when her feet were placed on the deck.

The Sydney zoo had started life across the water at Billy Goat Swamp, now better known as Moore Park. But a bigger, better site was found north of the harbour and all the animals had to move.

In scenes conjuring up images of Noah's Ark, the roll call included monkeys, birds, bears, deer and big cats.

The new zoo, which this month celebrates its 95th birthday, was cutting-edge at the time. The idea was to present the animals without putting them behind bars but at the same time ensure inquisitive children didn't come to harm.

An article in The Sydney Morning Herald reported the new zoo was: ''Quite secure without locks and iron bars, the lions and tigers … will have their rocky enclosure to walk about in. A deep moat in front, hidden by a garden plot, will keep these beasts of the forests and jungle from doing anyone harm.''

Since then, when admission was sixpence for adults and twopence for children, the zoo has rapidly expanded.

The giraffe house was completed in 1923 and a polar bear exhibit in 1925. An aquarium, floral clock, ''Tahr Mountain'' for the Tahr mountain goats to climb and tiger enclosures followed.

World War II brought unique concerns for the zoo with plans, which were happily not implemented, to destroy the lions and tigers amid fears a Japanese bomb could unleash them on an unsuspecting Sydney public. Also during the war a night watchman was attacked after he disturbed two soldiers fishing in the ponds of the aquarium for tropical fish.

The zoo, boosted by massive financial support from refrigeration tycoon Edward Hallstrom, took a new philosophical direction in 1967 with an emphasis on scientific research, conservation and education. Out went the elephant rides, miniature trains and a monkey circus, which were replaced by platypus and nocturnal houses, waterfowl ponds and a walk-through rainforest aviary.

Today Taronga, home to more than 3900 animals of more than 300 species, has plenty to celebrate on its 95th birthday. A zoo spokesman said: ''Nearly a century on, Taronga is a 24-hour-a-day experience with students and visitors sleeping over, wildlife lovers training to be keepers, critical breeding and research programs under way and tens of thousands of school students learning about wildlife.''

The celebration also involves the opening this month of the $16 million main entrance redevelopment - which includes animal exhibits, shops and the Sky Safari cable car and cafe - after significant restoration of the heritage-listed entry building, built in 1915, to its former Edwardian glory.

Sadly it isn't known if any of the creatures at the zoo are direct descendants of the animals in the 1916 inventory.

Creatures that call Taronga home the longest, however, include the Aldabran tortoises and American alligators, which arrived at the zoo in the late 1940s.

Lulu, the matriarch of the chimpanzee group arrived in 1965, probably having been born in the wild in the late 1950s, and making her the zoo's oldest primate.

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