Featherdale Wildlife Park

The highlight of our week visit in Sydney.
This place was absolutely amazing. We didn’t want to leave. It’s so awesome to get up close and personal with the Koalas, kangaroos, wallabies and other Australia wildlife. If your visiting Sydney, I highly recommend you take a day to visit this park as it’s likely something you won’t be able to do elsewhere.

This place is BRILLIANT! I took my American friend here for a day when he was visiting, as he really wanted to pat a Koala. My boyfriend, my friend and I are all adults and we didn’t have any kids. We had SO much fun!
Even though Koala’s are illegal to hold in NSW, you can still get right up to a Koala here and even touch them gently on the back. These Koala showings happen all day as they have multiple Koala’s to choose from. I lost count at how many Koala’s there were here! Each Koala had their own enclosure and looked very happy. The Koala I got to meet was called Kane and he looked healthy and happy and was very at ease on his perch. When the Koala’s are done or don’t want to be shown anymore, they indicate to the handler by moving around and climbing down the perch. She takes him back to his home, and she chooses another Koala that has woken up from his sleep. I thought this was great as the Koala’s are all at ease and seem very happy with this approach.
The open area is another great aspect about this place. For $ 1 you can buy some feed, although the animals prefer the ice cream cones to the actual feed! They are free to roam around certain areas, but they can also hop back to their own fenced off area if they want some peace and quiet from visitors.
I was very impressed with the vast selection of birds here! They have so many different birds! My boyfriend and I love birds and we spent a good while looking at all of them. I’m not a bird expert obviously, but I do have to say that some of the enclosures for the bigger birds looked a bit small. Again, I don’t know what the requirements are for large eagles and birds of that size, but to me the enclosures looked a tad small for them.
Featherdale is a family-​friendly place, and so much cheaper than Taronga. Admission is $ 30 and it includes everything in the park! Including the open area with the wallabies and the Koala meet. You don’t pay extra for these. This is a fantastic and affordable day out for the family I think. If you are in Sydney you definitely need to make the trip out here!

Koalas being one of my favorite animals I had to defiantly make sure that I saw THE FAMOUS ARCHER …
Not only did I get to see him the friendly staff made it possible to get to snuggle up close to him !!!
If you love koalas as much as I do this is one stop you can’t pass up !

This place is the ideal experience for your first dose of Australian wildlife, and it’s just within the suburbs of Sydney. It’s great for all ages. The admission price isn’t bad at all since there’s a lot of free unforgettable things you can experience at this park, plus there are kids and student discounts as well. Featherdale seems like a very chill wildlife park because these animals are just roaming around like it’s no big deal and just hanging up on the tree even though there are tons of people surrounding them taking pictures, so expect animals up close here.
Some the popular marsupials here are the koala bears, wallabies, kangaroos, wombats and Tasmanian devils. Going to Australia I wanted a picture with koala and I got one here. You can’t hold them since it’s illegal but you can be right next to them and pet their bottoms. There is no fee to take pictures with them. They’re pretty much eating away on eucalyptus leaves in order to keep them occupied while humans surround them. Park employees monitor the koala bears interacting with people but there are much more within the park, I was surprised there were so many just hanging around. Another family to the koala bears are the wombats, they are small, short and fat, it looks like pig but definitely smaller and with more fur. These aninals can’t be touched so you admire behind a closed section. Tasmanian devils are another animal that I was looking forward to see but during the day they sleep so nothing exciting happened when I saw them. The most action I got at this park was with the wallabies and kangaroos, they’re everywhere. When they say there are more kangaroos and wallabies than humans in Australia, I don’t doubt that at all, there were so many around and behaved so normal around humans, even more calm than household pets. There are cones where you pay dollar if you want to feed them, and they were very nonchalant when we being up close and petting them. My friends started feeding them from the eucalyptus tree and then even more wallabies came and next thing you know we were surrounded by all of them but they weren’t aggressive at all, even small children are safe here. I didn’t enjoy the many pigeons and birds flying around, I hated it! The exotic and beautiful cassowary is defintely cool looking but very scary, trying to feed this gigantic bird was dangerous, watch your kids seriously or else it still peck their hand away. The one other animal that left an impression on me was the huge crocodile, I’ve never seen anything so massive in real life just a few feet away from me. Obviously you can’t touch the crocodile but you can see all the details of its body and its teeth, just wow, it blew me away.
Don’t forget to use the passport given at admissions to stamp away at each part of the zoo you visit to keep as a keepsake. Parking is free. There is also a little café within the park if you get hungry or thirsty.
Overall, Featherdale is worth visiting!

I brought my two children here, 9 months and 4 years old, they enjoyed their visit here. This didn’t feel quite like a wildlife «park» and more of an overgrown neighborhood collection. It has a good collection, but feels crowded and is wedged into a residential neighborhood. The staff were friendly, even telling us about a bird that liked a good head scratch.
The Kuala experience was nice, but not what was expected. There is one staff member who will chat and is friendly but they can’t take a picture for you as they must watch the animal. Setting up some pedestal for timer photos would be nice, but most people are nice enough to help the person in line in front of them. The Kuala is generally just sleeping in a beach, you can let them and pose for a picture.
The kangaroo area is nice with free roaming kangaroos that you can play with and take pictures.
I was there on a random Thursday and the park was nice and not too crowded, I’d be worried to go on a weekend or a chop holiday.

Loved it! If you want to see every animal Australia is famous for, and touch some of them or feed them this is absolutely the place.
We visited a few zoos and Featherdale was easily the best of them. Friendly staffr, amazing access to the animals, decent gift shop and fair pricing make this an absolute must visit if you’re within an hour of the place. Love it!

I got to take pictures with kualas and kangaroos. This was part of our Blue Mountain tour. I also loved seeing all the cockatoos up close. You don’t need a lot of time. We went through the entire part within about an hour.

Full disclosure: I am an adult and went to Featherdale without children. I still had an awesome time.
If you’re looking to take your mandatory Australia photo with a koala, do it here. Featherdale is extremely reasonably priced (and you can often get a discount if you look online) and has all the native animals you would hope to see.
You can pat, feed and take a photo with a koala or wallabies, which was super exciting for me! There are also lots of farm animals in a petting zoo type area and heaps of bird and reptiles to look at.
As I am generally one of those animal rights hippie types, I often stay away from zoos, etc. because they make me sad. The animals don’t belong in cages and they often don’t have any friends in there! Although the animals are in enclosures at Featherdale, I didn’t get the feeling any of them were sad though!
If you have a family, this is an excellent kid friendly park. They even have a little passport that you can get stamps for throughout the park. The animals are very friendly and many will let you touch them and feed them. There are ample keepers throughout the park to answer questions and deal with any issues that might arise. There are shows and feelings throughout the day that help you learn more about the animals of the park.
There’s also a large picnic area where you can eat your own food or purchase some from a small but very reasonably priced shop. The chips looked and smelled delicious.

I love Featherdale! Here are the reasons why:
1. Petting/​picture taking with the koalas is FREE and available ALL DAY! So go crazy with the selfies. (No guarantee that the koalas will actually be conscious for the shoot, though.)
2. Tons of koalas hanging around on branches… some had babies sticking out of their pouches. Awww!
3. THREE free-​range kangaroo areas and ‘roo food (grass/​corn in a plain ice cream cone) available for purchase on the honor system.
4. Admission ($ 29.50) really isn’t expensive for all the kewl things you’ll do/​see.
5. Most of the animals can be seen pretty close up. I don’t know if it’s because they don’t have places to hide, or they like being seen (more likely they designed the exhibits that way)…Any camera should be able to zoom in and capture the little critters.
6. Stick around for the animal feedings! The penguin feeding, in particular, was super cute. Also, when they feed the Tasmanian Devils, you’ll know.
7. It’s as close to a backyard with wild animals as you’ll get. I didn’t think it was very zoo-​y, probably because everyone was so chill.
8. The birds! Usually I’m like, «Oh, birds…» But the birds at Featherdale are beautiful/​loud/​colorful and they seem happy. If you can, check out the birds of prey when they’re given their ration of dead chicks.
9. The DINGOS (basically wild shiba inus) are great. I wanted to hop the fence and take one home, but I’m pretty sure they’d end up mauling me. There were puppies when I visited, too!
10. Less busy than the zoos in Sydney! This one is a big plus because hoards of screaming kids/​tourists gets annoying real quick. Featherdale is more relaxed and you have more time to focus on the animals.
Things that weren’t my favorite:
1. It’s a ways away from Sydney, so if you’re a tourist, you’ll have to take the train and either a bus/​taxi to get to and from the place. It took us 1 hour 20 minutes one-​way.
2. The gift shop is kind of blah.

So, this place is just plain awesome. It’s a wildlife park that is strangely located in the suburbs just outside of Sydney, which means you can see some of the amazing animals that Australia has to offer without venturing too far out into «the wild» (where the animals might kill you… maybe I’ve seen too many nature shows).
What animals, you ask? Well, the «Australian staples» are here: kangaroos and koalas. And, you can feed the kangaroos! Regular zoos don’t let you do that! You can also pet the koalas, but in Australia it’s illegal to hold a koala anywhere outside of Queensland. (I found that the koalas smelled pretty bad to begin with, so I didn’t have a strong desire to hold one.)
Aside from the more popular animals, there’s a variety of other great animals to see. My personal favorite is the wombat, which is surprisingly cute and (sort of) fuzzy, and hobbles around the pen in a really adorable way. A close second is the quokka, which Buzzfeed has popularized as «the happiest animal on earth.» The quokka selfie is becoming an Internet phenomenon, so you might as well take one while you’re here. There’s several pens of quokkas throughout the park, but you’ll learn that taking a selfie with one is harder than it seems!
There’s a huge collection of animals and birds here, enough to keep you busy for several hours. Worth the trip out if you’re in Sydney and want to see and even interact with some of Australia’s most famous wildlife. Also, protip if you’re trying to collect all the animal stamps: they keep a set of stamps at the gift shop at the very end of the park, so don’t spend too much time making sure you get them all!

This is a wonderful Wildlife Park and they have an amazing number of native animals to see. You can get your picture taken with a kola bear, but no touching. Kola is on a tree eating and you stand close behind them to get picture. You can use your own camera to take pictures, but they also take pics for you if you forgot your camera. It is very open and interactive with animal food (for purchase) to feed the kangaroos, etc… There are lots of birds for any bird-​lovers and of course they have a great gift shop at the end to browse and get souveniers

I came with my sister on voting day, and the park was not busy at all. We weren’t sure what to expect but had one of our most memorable days in Sydney here. Even though we spent more time on public transportation (2 hr there + 2 hr back) than actually in the park (3.5 hr) it was totally worth it!
One of the best things about this place is that you can pet and take a picture with a koala, koala selfie! The day we went it was pretty empty so we were able to take our time as there wasn’t a line. I love that you can interact with some of the animals. We got there in time to pet a snake, got to have a tawny frogmouth sit on my arm, saw the echidna feeding and was able to «pet» one. We also got to see the little penguins get fed, which was nice as later in the afternoon most of them had returned to their little holes.
They have a lot of different birds and animals, but it’s not the hugest place. Enough to be thoroughly entertained for a few hours. We had fun with the animal passport stamping our way through the park. It’s definitely worth the trip to get up close to the animals. And be sure to take advantage of the feedings to really see the animals closer!

Awesome zoo to visit on a Thursday afternoon when it was relatively quiet and we could interact with the animals to the nth degree. All the workers were very courteous and knowledgeable. The animals themselves were great to look at and interact with especially the kangaroos and wallabies. There are tons of koalas here and they are not all sleeping. There is something for everyone here at Featherdale. It is not only for kids. There was even a beautiful tony grasshopper on my girlfriend’s head. I’d come back here in a heartbeat and highly recommend it to everyone. Since its far from the city, not many tourists come through but they do get some buses.

Best «zoo» experience ever. Zoo is in quotes because this is actually a Wildlife Park which is far superior to any zoo I’ve ever been to.
For only $ 29 you can bring in your own food and just enjoy this wonderful place. I liked how open and interactive it all was. It was amazing to pet, feed, and adore the animals. The only line or crowd was to take a picture with the koala which is totally worth it.
Bring $ 1 coins so you can buy kangaroo food!

The journey out of the city centre is worth it to get to Featherdale. While the Taronga zoo has all sorts of animals from all over the world in a nice setting, Featherdale has all local Ozzie animals.
The real highlight I think for most people is the Koala exhibit. Lots of koalas are to be seen, and one of them is out on display eating where you can touch it (gently under instruction) and take a photo with it. There are also lots of kangaroos and wombats out in open pens. Nice to have so many part of the exhibit where the animals can choose to interact or not.
Lots of birds too for the bird lovers. Most of them are well-​displayed, although some of the larger birds seem to be in rather small cages relative to their size.
Overall, a very pleasant excursion from the city. Great for kids, the family, and adults.

Want to be able to pet wombats, kangaroos and take a close-​up picture with Koala? Look no further!
Came here as a part of the blue mountains tour which I found from the tourist guidebook. Arrived much earlier before the crowd arrives but unfortunately we were only given an hour to roam around.
Was given a booklet (map on the left, stamping page on the right). First up, wombats near to the entrance. Gigantic sized wombats that you could pet when it is close to the railings. There are also a wallaby corner where wallabies can hop around the enclosure. You could take picture of those too but since they hop extremely fast, you can’t really pet it.
The next up is the kangaroo enclosure. You could purchase its food on a cone before entering this area for $ 1 each. I bought 3 as the Kangaroos which were waiting near to the entrance looked hungry and they were not taking turns during the feed. The tour guide managed to get a good picture of me feeding the Kangaroos.
Then the koala enclosure. More koalas hanging on the trees hibernating. They sleep 18 – 20 hours per day so it’s lucky that some of us managed to get good picture of them while they are awake. At a corner, you could take a picture with the koala which is located next to the park keeper. Lots of people queuing for that so I gave that a miss.
After these three sort of sectioned areas, there are more animals and birds (dingos, emus, crocodiles, Tasmanian devils, penguins, etc). You could also look around for the stamps to stamp the booklets.
There is also a small snack area and a shop where you can get more Australian goods. I love that this park is extremely well maintained and the hands on experiences with the animals are definitely a bonus. Do come here to play with the animals.

Do not miss Featherdale if you’re in Sydney! It may be a bit of a drive, but it really is worth it. Featherdale Wildlife park is a privately owned park with a very wide array of animals and birds. The park is beautiful and nicely kept up, the employees are friendly, and the experience is an amazing one.
Hands down the coolest part of this park is the opportunity to pet koalas and feed the kangaroos and wallabies. One of the first areas you walk into is the koala habitat, where you can observe them sleeping, eating, and caring for their small ones. If you’re lucky, one will get taken out for the opportunity to pet them. Just in case you’re curious, they aren’t as soft and fluffy as you’d think they’d be.
After the koala area, you can purchase ($ 1) an ice cream cone filled up with grasses to feed to the kangaroos. The kangaroos are pretty used to this happening and will happily come up to you for food and scratches. It’s hard to leave this area, because, really, where else are you going to get this experience?
The rest of the park is huge, with wandering paths that take you through different habitats. There are a ton of beautiful birds, native Australian animals (more kangaroos, wombats, Tasmanian devils, dingos, wallabies), snakes and lizards, and even a farm area with goats and rabbits. Unless you’re squeamish, be sure to check out the feeding times, which are posted throughout the park.
One thing that I loved was hand washing stations throughout the park, definitely nice after petting or feeding some of the animals. Plus, there’s a small food area, and of course, a gift shop for your typical souvenirs. Don’t plan on making this a quick trip, and even if you did, you’ll end up staying here for hours.
I’d love to visit again and it will definitely be on my list for any future return trip to the Sydney area.

How this is a private collection is mind boggling! Though smaller than the Taronga Zoo, there are plenty of creatures here to check out in a more consolidated format… Great if you’re traveling w anyone that can’t walk longer distances.
The standout is def their koala and kangaroo exhibits! They have various, scheduled tines throughout the day that you can engage w other animals but i, personally, am not all that excited to play around w a bat lol.
For a 1 $ donation, you can purchase an ice cream cone filled w food to give to the Roos! Soooooo cool! There are plenty of them around to feed (there were big ones, babies, and even one w a Joey popping it’s head out of its momma’a pouch! …like a lil rat hehee) but can be intimidating to approach initially because they’re quite tall when they stand up on their hind legs! Eeek! But, they’re friendly and will eat out of ur hand. Its a lil funny cause you can feel their teeth brushing against the palm of ur hand but I didn’t get bitten so just endure the creepy feeling and you’ll get some great shots :)
The kangaroos there seemed incredibly comfortable w having ppl around them… So much so that I saw a few ppl trying to take selfies w them! HAHAaaa
The only strange thing is that some of the cages looked somewhat small for the animals but I’m no animal expert…

I was a bit disappointed by Featherdale as I watched many animals contained in too small cages. It seemed like the birds were going stir crazy as they flew from side to side in their 5′ x 5′ cages. It was quite heartbreaking.
I also thought the kangaroo feeding area could use some work. The Roos are very eager to eat whatever you give them. Their aggressiveness for food made me believe that they aren’t fed too well.
I am just saddened by the control the tourists have on this wildlife park. You can tell that the tourists only want the best photo opportunity of the animals and that is what the park provides. It is geared for the human population rather than the sweet animals.
Was a bit disappointed. There are better sanctuaries.

Wallabies, kangaroos, koalas, emus, wombats, Tasmanian devils, dingoes and most of the animals of Australia and what most people think of as being of Australia are all here and close up. Yes, you can pet a koala or feed a kangaroo. It’s a great place to get acquainted with these creatures from the back bush and sort of mingle around with them; particularly great for kids. Some are fenced in, captive, but others are not so you’re right there amongst them or they’re right there amongst you depending upon your view of the situation.
It isn’t the most lavish of places but the fact that it’s not might be what makes it all that much better, since you’re free to wander. Interestingly the place seems to get larger and in fact is rather large (actually 7 acers in size) when you begin to explore it. I know I kept discovering little sections one after another that I didn’t initially think were there at first.
You’ll find it generally packed with tourists, but not overly crowded, as it is not only a main destination for tour buses but also generally included as side tours of other Australian tour destinations such as the Blue Mountains.
As you might expect, they have a little restaurant, basically snack food, and large souvenir store but if its souvenirs you’re seeking other than those of Featherdale itself, you can easily beat their prices when shopping in downtown Sydney.