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Visiting Featherdale Wildlife Park near Sydney: Worth it or Not?

Visiting Featherdale Wildlife Park near Sydney: Worth it or Not?

My passion for Australian wildlife started when I was a kid and my dad was flying back and forth to Australia for business. On each trip, he would return home with a new stuffed animal for me. After a while, I had a collection that included a koala, a kangaroo, an emu, a platypus, and an echidna.

But, the stuffed animal that I really fell in love with was the tiny wombat that my dad got at the airport. I’m sure he never expected me to like that one the most but I was proudly telling everyone that my favorite animal is a wombat, even though most people had no idea what that was.

Unsurprisingly, when I visited Sydney I wanted to see all the wildlife with my own eyes and the closest wildlife park to Sydney was Featherdale Wildlife Park.

kookabura

Why Visit Featherdale Wildlife Park near Sydney?

Upon arriving in Sydney, I wanted to find a place where I could interact with my favorite Australian fauna. Unfortunately, I was told that according to the laws of New South Wales (the state where Sydney lies), activities such as hugging or even touching koalas and wombats are forbidden.

It is still possible in other states, so if you head to Brisbane and the famous Australia Zoo, koala hugs are the norm.

I finally got to see my favorite wombats, sitting peacefully near the fence where I could pet them. There were also penguins, dingos, and plenty of wallabies. Wallabies are often confused with kangaroos, also present at Featherdale, but wallabies are smaller and friendlier.

wombat australia
A wombat is a furry nocturnal marsupial, usually described as some kind of hybrid between a pig and a bear.
wombat

Featherdale Wildlife Park

I got an ice cream cone filled with seeds to feed the wallabies. However, the poor wallabies had to fight with emus trying to steal their food, but I think I managed to feed my little friends enough.

wallabies

A big line of people indicated that there must have been a koala somewhere around. I managed to skip the line and hang out with another koala sitting on the branch of a eucalyptus tree. To my surprise, I was actually able to touch the koala.

The friendly staff informed me that only travel agencies say that you can’t touch the animals but it’s totally fine. The poor drunk half-asleep koala (eucalyptus makes them tipsy, the same thing happens to elephants who eat marula fruit) couldn’t be less bothered by me trying to hug it.

koala
koala
A photo of penguins taken with my UK phone.

Most people head to the Blue Mountains after their visit, but I was terribly disappointed by them. Some say that the more you travel, the less impressed you are and that might be the case with me, but if you’ve been to New Zealand or South Africa, the Blue Mountains will disappoint you. Overall though, the trip was definitely worth it, because of the wildlife park!

Jane

Monday 24th of February 2020

Wow this post brings the memories flooding back! I visited this sanctuary as a young girl (I'm from the UK and now 28) and had similar photos to yours! I loved the kookaburra and remember the koala felt like a fuzzy lump of rock?! Xx

Magda

Friday 9th of February 2018

Cześć, Anna!

Na Twojego bloga trafiłam całkiem przypadkiem po przez wpis o żyrafiej rezydencji w Kenii. Widząc parę żyraf wtykających głowy przez okno podczas Waszego posiłku serce mi podskoczyło z ekscytacji, a przez głowę przemknęła myśl "muszę tam pojechać!". Zaczęłam czytać Twoje wcześniejsze wpisy i rozpływać się na myśl o tych wszystkich wspaniałych podróżach, które odbyłaś, miejscach które zobaczyłaś i tego czego podczas tych podróży doświadczyłaś (mapa z zaznaczonymi krajami, w których byłaś robi ogromne wrażenie!).

Jako początkująca podróżniczka, a wręcz bardzo początkująca, większość swoich dalekich podróży odbywam wirtualnie, czytając blogi i książki. Natomiast w końcu szczęśliwie wygląda na to, że wreszcie zacznę prawdziwie podróżować. Na cel swojej pierwszej egzotycznej podróży obrałam krainę swoich dziecięcych marzeń - Australię. Ponieważ wybór moich podróżniczych destynacji jest podyktowany zwierzętami, które mogę tam spotkać wybór Australii nie powinien dziwić. Moje serce lata temu skradły wombaty i nie wyobrażam sobie wyjechania z Australii bez zobaczenia i pogłaskania jednego z nich, a najlepiej i przytulenia! W Internecie jest mnóstwo informacji o tym, gdzie można przytulić koale, natomiast o wombatach jakoś cicho. I tutaj moje pytanie do Ciebie, jako zadeklarowanej miłośniczki wombatów, czy poza Featherdale Wildlife Park może znasz inne miejsce w Australii, które pozwoliło by na bliższy kontakt z tymi słodziakami (może gdzieś na Tasmanii)? Będę wdzięczna za wszelkie podpowiedzi.

Serdecznie pozdrawiam i gratuluje wspaniałego bloga. Magda

Anna

Saturday 10th of February 2018

Hey Magda! Swietnie trafilas z pytaniem, poniewaz akurat pod koniec lutego wybieram sie znowu do Australii wiec bede wstawiac mnostwo Insta Stories stamtad. Od paru dni takze poszukuje informacji na temat wlasnie gdzie mozna sie spotkac z wombatami i pomimo tego ze jest pare sanctuaries wszystkie sa prywatne (ale polecam pogapic sie na filmiki ze Sleepy Burrows Wombat Sanctuary na facebooku ;-) ) i nie mozna ich odwiedzac. Z mojego rozeznania miejsca sa dwa: jedno to Caversham Wildlife Park kolo Perth, drugie to Bonorong Wildlife na Tasmanii. Trzecie to slynne Australia Zoo (tam gdzie Steve Irwin pracowal) w Queensland, natomiast pojawiaja sie watpliwosci w sieci na temat tegoczy to ostatnie zoo jest ethical czy nie, ale nie bylam jeszcze wiec nie moge sie wypowiadac.

cache creek

Saturday 25th of June 2016

Hello there! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I really enjoy reading your blog posts. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same subjects? Thank you!|

allee

Monday 1st of February 2016

Hi Anna, have just discovered your blog and reading your posts. I live in Australia. On one of my travels I visited Wilsons Promontory - National Park Victoria. I was fortunate to come across a wild wombat, he looked really friendly and my hubby at the time was saying don't get too close, well I ended up crouching down and patting this wombat for ages, he was indeed very friendly, I am thinking he had always lived close to the campers and gets fed a lot. Great blog Allee

Anna

Monday 1st of February 2016

Awwww now I'm jealous!

Jason

Wednesday 25th of November 2015

Not a good idea to play with the native animals, not exactly the most friendly creatures.

Your clothing attire should have been a bikini, much more appropriate for the situation ;)

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