Oakvale Wildlife Park in Salt Ash, Port Stephens, NSW: Why visit?

Animals at Oakvale Wildlife Park in Salt Ash, Port Stephens, NSW include quokkas, wedge-tailed eagles, perenties, woma pythons, laughing kookaburras and Tasmanian devils.

Oakvale Wildlife Park in Port Stephens, New South Wales, is one of several zoos and wildlife parks in Australia. Most offer the chance to get close to native Australian animals, and Oakvale Wildlife Park in Salt Ash is no different in this respect.

6 fantastic Port Stephens experiences worth going for.

4WD dunes tour with sandboarding – whizz down the Sahara-style dunes
Dolphin-watching cruise with fun boom nets 🐬.
Quad-biking over the Worimi sand dunes – learning about local Aboriginal culture along the way.
Snorkelling with wild dolphins – the ultimate dolphin experience
Port Stephens koala sanctuary admission tickets 🐨.
Shallow water shark and ray encounter 🦈.

This Port Stephens wildlife park was founded in 1979 as Oakvale Farm & Fauna World, and changed its name to Oakvale Wildlife Park in 2018. It’s in the settlement of Salt Ash, just north of the Worimi National Park and Stockton Sand Dunes. It’s also very close to Newcastle Airport at Williamtown, which gives it a unique selling point. You can drop by and see some cute creatures before flying out of Newcastle Airport. It’s about half way between the city of Newcastle and the main towns of Port Stephens, such as Nelson Bay, Anna Bay and Salamander Bay.

Australian animals at Oakvale Wildlife Park

Oakvale Wildlife Park does have some international guests, such as the highland cow and American alligator. But most of the line-up is Australian. The birds include tawny frogmouths, laughing kookaburras, galahs and wedge-tailed eagles.

There are also plenty of marsupials on show, including quokkas, Tasmanian devils, koalas and eastern grey kangaroos.

hand-feeding wallabies at Oakvale Wildlife Park in Port Stephens, New South Wales — Hand-feeding wallabies is one of the highlights of the Oakvale Wildlife Park in Port Stephens. Photo courtesy of Destination NSW.

Amongst the reptile section at Oakvale Wildlife Park, you’ll find goannas, eastern water dragons, perenties and woma pythons.

Salt Ash, Port Stephens wildlife encounters

As with many other Australian wildlife parks, Oakvale offers special animal encounters. These essentially involve forking out extra money in return for a close-up photo opportunity with one of the animals. Most of these animal encounters cost $65, and the animals available include birds, koalas and meerkats.

Aside from the animals, Oakvale Wildlife Park has a few other attractions. These include a small water park, a children’s playground and barbecue facilities. General admission costs $29.50.

Oakvale Wildlife Park is by no means an essential stop in Port Stephens. More pressing things to do in Port Stephens include camel rides on Birubi Beach, 4WD tours on the Stockton Dunes, swimming with dolphins from Nelson Bay and dolphin-watching cruises. You might also like to take on the Tomaree Head Summit Walk and go nude sunbathing at Samurai Beach.