Elaine Bensted's finance skills as chief executive from 2012 stops Zoos South Australia joining the endangered species

Chief executive Elaine Bensted and her team at Adelaide Zoo and Monarto Safari Park rescued the not-for-profit Zoos SA from the financial brink and saw it win Australia's top tourism award in 2023.
Image courtesy Zoos SA

Elaine Bensted, Adelaide zoos’ chief executive from 2012, was credited with saving them from the endangered list. When Bensted took over running Zoos SA, it had $25 million in debt and an uncertain future. Bensted and her team rescued Adelaide Zoo and Monarto Safari Park from the brink amid Covid lockdowns and restrictions.

In 2023, Adelaide Zoo became the first South Australian organisation to take out the top national tourism award and welcomed a record 662,442 visitors to both sites. It also had a raft of multimillion-dollar projects coming up.

Bensted brought valuable financial and business experience to the Zoos SA turnaround. This was due to an ironic twist. Having emigrated as a family from Scotland, Bensted (nee Walker) and her siblings grew up exploring the Adelaide foothills. Developing a passion for animals and conservation, she set her sights firmly on a career as a veterinarian. But that dream was dashed and her university studies put on hold when she fainted at the sight of blood and had a fear of needles.

Instead, Bensted took a job in a bank for 17 years. Looking to consolidate and transfer her skills, she completed an MBA (master of business administration) at the University of South Australia. This equipped her with strategic planning and introduced her to a network of public sector professionals. Bensted next took on roles in local government before moving into the South Australian government and being assigned to transform TAFE (Technical and Further Education) South Australia into a statutory authority and becoming its chief executive.

With her skills badly needed by Zoos SA when she gained its chief excutive role in 2012, Benstead also had the challenges of navigating the global pandemic; ensuring the welfare of the animals was paramount but also ensuring staff and the huge volunteer workforce were supported and informed.

Unlike most other zoos, Zoos SA was a membership-based non-government entity and had to constantly seek grants and sponsorships. Bensted defined a good zoo as “one that has a really strong focus on animal welfare, on conservation and on engagement and education. We’re lucky in Australia and New Zealand that the vast majority of our zoos fall into that category. We’re all accredited by the Zoo and Aquarium Association (ZAA) for animal welfare. So, it’s something we take really seriously.”

Bensted was on the Australian Rhino Project board, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums board, and their conservations, environment and sustainability committee. She became president of the ZAA board. Outside the zoo sector, she was on the Children’s University advisory board, the University of South Australia business school programme advisory board, and the regional development Australia Murraylands and Riverland board.