Google Street View hits Taronga Zoo, Luna Park

Google Street View is expanding its off-road locations in Australia, opening up Taronga Zoo and Luna Park.

It started with the Great Barrier Reef; now, Google has opened up two major Sydney attractions in Street View, so that people browsing Australia on the web can get a hit of their ambience: Taronga Zoo and Luna Park.

The project has been long underway, with Street View photos dating back to April 2010 for Luna Park, and January 2010 for Taronga Zoo. They were captured using the Street View Trikes — and the two locations form part of the vanguard for a larger series of Street View Collections in Australia, expanding the global series.

Other locations that users can explore include the Art Gallery of NSW, Kakadu National Park, Shark Bay and the aforementioned Great Barrier Reef. Globally, there's Scott's Hut in Antarctica, Versailles in France and Stonehenge in the UK.

Don't expect to find the full experience, however; looking at a screen rather than actually physically being there notwithstanding, the cameras keep strictly to the main thoroughfares at both locations — everywhere, Google told CNET Australia, that can be accessed with wheelchairs. (Except inside the reptile and big cat pavilions. We checked.)

Additionally, if you go to a location that Street View hasn't covered, you can now upload your own panoramic shots to the service using Photo Spheres — making it a more collaborative experience than ever.