Featherdale Wildlife Park, Sydney: What animals can I see?
The Featherdale Wildlife Park in Western Sydney offers close encounters with lorikeets, penguin and pelicans. It’s also possible to hand-feed kangaroos while visiting the Featherdale Wildlife Park animals.
Often included on day tours to the Blue Mountains, the Featherdale Wildlife Park is a perennially popular attraction. For many visitors to Sydney, the Featherdale Wildlife Park presents their first chance to see native Australian wildlife.
Featherdale is a relatively small wildlife park in Doonside near the Blacktown Drive In and Nurragingy Reserve. It is never going to compete with Taronga Zoo or Australia Zoo. But Featherdale Wildlife Park does allow tourists to get up close to cute Australian creatures, and that’s a strong enough selling point.
13 brilliant experiences in Sydney you should book
- (💲Great value 💲) Tick off several bucket list items on a highlights-packed Blue Mountains day tour.
- Get perfect views of the world’s most beautiful city on a Sydney Harbour helicopter tour.
- Save money with a multi-attraction pass.
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Enjoy the romance of a tall ship cruise on Sydney Harbour.
- Eat all you can at the Skyfeast at the top of Sydney Tower.
- See migrating humpbacks – on a whale-watching cruise.
- (Highly recommended ✅) Go behind the scenes of Australia’s most famous building on an Opera House tour.
- Dine as the city lights up on sunset dinner cruise around the harbour.
- Combine beers and stories on a historic pubs tour through the convict-era Rocks district.
- Stand on your board and catch waves during Bondi Beach surfing lessons.
- Go to wombat and kangaroo-spotting hotspots on a Southern Highlands tour.
- Enjoy Sydney’s wild side on a Manly snorkelling & nature walk.
- (🥇Top choice in Sydney) And, best of all, paddle to hidden beaches on a harbour kayaking adventure.
Wombats scuffle around inside logs, koalas sleepily pose for photos and kangaroos hop around freely. The Featherdale kangaroos are very friendly, too. Buy a bag of feed, and the kangaroos will eat out of your hand at Featherdale Wildlife Park.
Featherdale Wildlife Park animal encounters
Featherdale also offers a series of wildlife encounters that take place throughout the day. These include going into the lorikeet enclosure to feed the chatty, colourful birds and a quokka selfie encounter. The latter allows visitors into the quokka enclosure to get photos with the cute marsupials. In the wild, they’re usually found on Rottnest Island in Western Australia.
Other close encounters are available with pelicans, mother and baby koalas and little penguins. It is not possible to cuddle a koala at Featherdale. You need to go somewhere like Lone Pine in Brisbane or Kuranda Koala Gardens near Cairns to hold a koala. But it is possible to pat a koala in one of Featherdale’s close encounter experiences.
Other Featherdale Wildlife Park animals include dingo pups and a large saltwater crocodile.
5 fab ways to explore: Which Blue Mountains tour should I book?
There are dozens of Blue Mountains day tours leaving Sydney every day. The best choice will come down to personal preference and what’s included. Almost all include Echo Point and the Three Sisters – it’s just the rest of the itinerary that varies. These tours are the best bets.
- Good value tour including Featherdale Wildlife Park, Scenic World & Parramatta River cruise.
- Similar itinerary, but with small group and lunch included.
- Wildlife-focused tour including Calmsley Hill City Farm, Govetts Leap lookout & Blue Mountains Botanic Garden.
- Small group tour including bushwalks, Featherdale, Glenbrook lookouts and Govetts Leap.
- Crowd-avoiding sunset tour including Euroka campground kangaroos & Wentworth Falls bushwalk.
How to get to Featherdale Wildlife Park in Sydney
The Featherdale Wildlife Park has recently rebranded as the Featherdale Sydney Wildlife Park. It is open from 9am to 4pm daily. Several Blue Mountains day tours stop at Featherdale.
To get there under your own steam, it’s around a 40 minute drive west of Sydney CBD.
To get to Featherdale by public transport, take the North Shore and Western Line to Blacktown Station. Then take the number 729 bus from bus stand E outside Blacktown Station. It’s a ten minute ride to the wildlife park. General admission tickets cost $35 for adults and $22 for children.
Other attractions in Western Sydney include the gantry tour at the 2020 Olympic Stadium and flying with jetpacks in Penrith.
More Australian wildlife encounters
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Where in Australia can I cuddle a koala?