The company that owned Pinjarra’s Ranger Red’s Zoo has gone into insolvency, potentially owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in debts, but its new owner says he is keeping the zoo open and even has plans to expand to a new location. Ranger Red’s Zoo and Conservation Park, known as Peel Zoo until 2019, entered voluntary administration on June 18 and has since gone into liquidation through WA Insolvency Solutions. Bradley ‘Ranger Red’ Holland said the company went into liquidation as he could not come to any other agreement with the family of his late business partner Peter Mascaro, who died in 2022, to allow him to buy out the company.
“The zoo was previously owned by myself and the Mascaro family and the company that we had went into liquidation,” he said. “My company has come to the rescue of the zoo and taken over the zoo and purchased some of the assets out of the liquidation, and will plow ahead to keep the zoo open.” WA Insolvency Solutions’s Jimmy Trpcevski has been appointed as liquidator for the original owner of the zoo and said part of the reason the business went into administration was because it “just couldn’t meet its debts”.
“There was (also) a dispute with the shareholder of the company which, according to the director, prevented him from dealing with his day-to-day (expenses) in an orderly way,” Mr Trpcevski said. “As a consequence of that appointment and based on limited funds that was in the company, (as) the administrator.