Featherdale Wildlife Park, Wildlife park in Doonside, Australia
Featherdale Wildlife Park is a 3.29-hectare zoo in Doonside, about 40 km west of Sydney's CBD. It holds around 2,000 animals across 260 species, mostly Australian, including koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, Tasmanian devils and little penguins. The grounds combine animal enclosures and display areas with picnic spaces, shops and a two-storey café.
Charles and Marjorie Wigg bought the seven-acre site in 1953 and ran it as a poultry farm. Their son-in-law Bruce Kubbere, who had studied fauna, opened Featherdale there in 1972 as a native plant nursery combined with a wildlife park. A 1975 rezoning for public housing threatened closure until Premier Sir Robert Askin reversed the decision.
The park shares knowledge about Australian animals and their habitats through regular demonstrations and educational programs available to all visitors. You learn how wildlife protection shapes the future of these species.
The park is open daily for visitors and offers wheelchair accessibility with pathways easy to walk. Wear comfortable shoes and plan several hours to explore the different animal areas at a relaxed pace.
The park's koala collection is the largest in New South Wales, and it supplied animals and samples for a genetic study of captive and wild koalas run with the University of Queensland and the University of New South Wales. Holding a koala was stopped in 1988 under stricter animal welfare rules; photos with selected koalas under keeper instructions are still possible.
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