australia walkabout wildlife park

luxo101

The guides at this park change the experience from simply seeing animals in a cage like a zoo into a true encounter with nature.

Natasha627

We went with our 2 daughters, 10 months and 2 years. They had a great time! It's a small place, so kids don't have to walk much and there are heaps of animals walking around freely or can be touched/hand fed. Super friendly and knowledgeable staff, very reasonable prices entry, cafe and gift shop, loads of opportunities for close encounters with animals. For tourists visiting Australia, there's nothing better than mingling with the Aussie wildlife. You can see elephants and tigers in any zoo around the world, but at this place you can pat a kangaroo and touch a snake.

556BarbaraC

Right from the friendly, knowledgeable staff to the equally friendly emus and kangaroos, this is a perfect place for people to connect with both wildlife and native people's culture. While many of the animals are in contained areas, the wallabies, kangaroos and emus wander all over and are not shy. We were fortunate enough to be there on a day when there were very few visitors and had the animals and historic engravings to ourselves. It is a terrific way to experience native wildlife, especially as we'd been driving for days and had seen none.

214louisef

We recently took overseas visitors to this park and it was a the perfect place for them to get up close and personal with our native wildlife. The park is very natural bushland with many animals roaming freely and close to the visitors centre. You can actually walk up and touch Kangaroos, wallabys, emus and a koala. A short stroll through the bush (forest) is pleasant and there are numerous aboriginal art works on rocks in the area. You can also hire a guide to show you and explain about the wildlife and the indigenous art. the animals seem very happy and relaxed and the park is natural so wear sturdy walking shoes. Well worth a visit especially if you have overseas visitors or children. There is also a good selection of memorabilia at their shop. There are also longer walking trails for the enthusiastic walker. Very friendly staff.

TheRealGruber

We visited on December 20th 2014 and had a really lovely day. We arrived at 9.30am and as this was our first visit we were unsure of what to expect. The price of admission was very reasonable and the staff were extremely friendly and helpful. While the site is not huge it is big enough that you can make a good 4 hour stay. The shows were informative and well run, they went for long enough that the kids don't get bored or fidgety. We followed the shows we wanted to see and spent the rest of the time watching the wildlife roaming freely, making friends with Happy Feet the emu and our daughter loved feeding the alpacas and goats. We will definitely return.

DeeA326

It is not a huge park, but it's a nice walk, plus the staff are friendly. You can have a cup of tea with kangaroos and emu's around you

rhysm227

Rhys thanks for your feedback. You are right, as a working wildlife sanctuary, we are different from the traditional zoo. We love the fact that our kangaroos and emus and goannas and other friendly wild animals have got 80 acres of bush to wonder through, yet most of them choose to hang out by the visitor center to interact with the people. We note you mention "a small number of caged wildlife". With our family of rescued flying foxes, owls, cockatoos, wombats, dingoes, echidnas, quolls, Tasmanian devils, koalas, turtles, lots of different species of pythons and lizards, bilbies and more, we have almost all the iconic Australian animals in camps ready to meet our visitors, plus small farm animals (goats, alpacas, rabbits, chickens, ducks and Waffles the pig). We have taken your point about the cafe, thank you, and have updated out cafe signs so people can now easily see where to order light meals from the cafe menu, although visitors are welcome to bring a picnic.

Rsee4

Our guests from the USA were first time visitors to Australia who wanted to see and experience Australian wildlife up close. As the kangaroo population at the Gosford Reptile Park was minimal we decided on the Wildlife Park.What a great day! The park has a nice home grown feeling and is staffed by mainly enthusiastic friendly volunteers. Not huge, but big enough to walk and experience the bush and to mix with, and get really close to kangaroos, emu's, koala's etc, plus the reptiles and birdlife.Talk to the very helpful and informative staff and volunteers and with a variety of talks and feeding sessions as well, you will, like ourselves, learn a lot more about our native animals,habitat and culture. We took a picnic lunch and you can eat at the kiosk if, like us, you stay a bit longer than planned.A highlight and best Australian experience for our guests, and for us, as locals, it's a must do with future guests.,

296jasminl

This walkabout park is not very big and has very few animal inside, you are NOT allowed to feed kangaroos or emus and as you enter you get handed a list of do's a list of don'ts. The lady giving the boomerang show did not have a microphone and spoke to the floor. You can go on a aboriginal walk which leads in a big circle back where you started. The aboriginal sites are not well looked after so you can hardly see them. I will not come back here again as there are better places in the area to go!

samis892

I took my two girls aged 11 & 9 there in May 2014 and we basically went from animal talk/feeding/handling to the next, all day. I'm very much an animal person, but by the end of it, I had learnt a lot more about our little Aussie friends. Needless to say so did my two daughters. They had a great time and really soaked it all in. The staff and the animal handlers were all very friendly and overall it was a great experience in a wonderful bushland setting. Tip - there's lots of bush tracks to go for an easy trek where you'll discover aboriginal paintings and stone carvings along the way. And the emus can be a little in your face but the handlers are close by to help out if any are getting too up close and personal.

Dy2141

There were many walking tracks, kind of like bush walking that is away from the animals, it is also has Aboriginal art around the tracks, talking of the animals, most were asleep when we first arrived, there were some awake and there was enough time to listen to a talk about dingoes and pat the koalas before leaving for the next stop on our roadtrip

jien349

We are visitors from Brunei, didn't expect much but at lease have a close up experience to pad the kangaroo, emu and wallaby and also have a quick experience on learning how to throw a boomerang. A very good first time wildlife experience with a pretty reasonable entrance fee.

110rachc

Staff were very friendly and loved to talk to you about the animals and share their knowledge. Animal that were caged had good sized enclosures and seemed very well looked after. we had a wonderful tour around the Aboriginal carvings and hand prints, with extra information about local flora, fauna and 'bush medicine'. We also got the opportunity to try some 'bush tucker' (termites)! You are able to get up close to emus, kangaroos, wallabies and wallaroos. It was very reasonably priced and you should try to get there early to take advantage of al the talks the keeps provide. Would defiantly recommend/take other people to this park as we had such a fun time!

156rickyg

Went there during winter, got a groupon tix and had a relative from overseas who wanted to visit a zoo. I see all these good reviews and I thought might as well give it a try. Didn't expect much, thought the animals would be hiding from the cold and all but my, was I ever so wrong. Drove for an hour and half from Sydney and got there right when they just opened. Animals were led out one by one by staffs where you can touch them however you like which I never experienced before. After so many trips to different zoos in Sydney, I've got tired of paying to just "see" animals and this place really gave us an experience of a lifetime where we can interact with the animals like pets. Only downside is that there're not many animals, an expansion or more shows/events might make me come back.

ShirleyShopper49

This park is close enough to Sydney for an easy day trip out bad still far enough to feel a city escape. This park is run by highly knowledgable volunteers very friendly to answer any questions and help. They have a full day program inclusive of feeding and showing various animals. I was lucky enough to see baby Emu chicks which were adorable. You are able to walk through the park and even pat some of the animals. There are lots if kinds of kangaroos, emus, and my favourites were the pademelons. They have a mini farm where you can pat and feed alpacas and goats etc, they have chooks and waterfowl, and geese. They have a lot of different enclosures even with healthy Tasmanian devils, wombats, snakes etc. Fantastic for kids. I was even able to see a baby Koala. They have an aboriginal walk featuring a few special sites with carvings, and a look out over neighbouring Mt White. It's a very cosy, laid back park, definitely worth a visit to support the smaller parks and organisations such as this one. Good gift shop, and really good, and cheap coffee!