And so we got him Simon Corder and we said, “Simon, come and help us light this thing up.” So he did. And we had a board, but we had a Night safari committee and we said we have all these lighting options and everybody’s got a knows something about… Read More
And so that’s about the depth you want for your exhibits. And so basically, that’s it. We already knew the basic concepts. We have long exhibits. There are about 35 meters deep. Or if it’s a drive through, it’s 70 meters across. Don’t see barriers. Just don’t light them up. Read More
Let’s do the whole bloody thing.” And Lyn said, “Okay, well, 60 a bit much. So we 40 and have 20 hectares reserved.” So that’s what we did. And he said, “You sure it’s never been done?” He said, “Yeah, I mean, never been done certainly.” So we set about… Read More
And we realized that 500 people a night is not sufficient. So we said, “Well, then we have to change the concept now. So it has to be rather than loose animals, you can cite them, you have spotlights and stuff.” We said we have to have fixed enclosures, fixed… Read More
We got all ideas, but nothing really realistic. And until we got Lyn and Lyn happened to be coming through for some consultancy. And so we sat him down and says, “Lyn, what would you do?” And he said, “Well, I’ll just expand the zoo.” So we got 60 hectares. Read More
And everybody would walk out onto this viewing platform and the tiger would be approaching a baited live goat,” which you could do in those days, you can’t do it now. They bait this live goat steak came out every night, different one every night. A tiger would come in… Read More
Yeah, sure. Okay, so one day I’m sitting at my desk and I get a call from the chief water engineer of the Public Utilities Board. And he says, “So what are you doing with that extra land?” Zoo is 28 hectares with the car parks and quarantines and stuff. Read More
He said, we need to come up with an idea. Read More
So we had a series of lunches every week with captains of industry and asked them, so if you have 60 hectares of forested land, what would you do?… Read More
Was some of your money, though, coming from literally private industry?… Read More
Yes. Companies that we give money to the zoo. Yes, yeah, we would make a few million dollars a year on adoptions and outright capital donations. Singapore is a very affluent country. Well, let’s talk about another area. During this time in 1988, public utility board comes to you, wants… Read More
Can you talk about that process?… Read More
Can you help us to make up the deficit?… Read More
We got quite a lot of development projects that we need to put in. Can you help us?” As a government, they have many ways of transferring money to different government departments. So we latched in on a government department way of getting money. At one stage, we were getting… Read More
So if you insist on subsidizing all the visitors coming to the zoo, then spend it all on operations or else raise your damn prices and make yourself financially viable. And then you could spend all that money on capital development.” And we had always been very socialistic in our… Read More
So it was a dual partnership, public-private?… Read More
Yeah, you could say that. I think the government felt that in the case of the zoo, they were a little less strict than with the other government companies. So Singapore Airlines is a government-owned company. Singapore Airlines normally would never get any handouts from the government, although during COVID,… Read More
Where did the Singapore Zoo sit in the hierarchy of city government?… Read More
Up to the side part of it?… Read More
Yeah, very, very much to the side. We weren’t treated as civil servants, but we were treated as quasi-government. So as a government company, you have certain, I wouldn’t say privileges, but Temasek Holdings, the holding company, invites you to various seminars and things that say private sector wouldn’t be… Read More