Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Any place like this (photo) in/near Melbourne or Sydney?

Since a picture is worth thousand words, I will link two photos instead of making a long description.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kangaroos-and-tourists.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kangaroos-at-Lone-Pine-Koala-Sanctuary.jpg

Those are photos of Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane as some of you may know. I understand that koala cuddling is banned by state law in NSW and VIC, however I wonder if there is any place in/near Melbourne or Sydney where I can do the activity shown in the first photo.

I wonder if there is any place in/near Melbourne or Sydney where I can do the activity shown in the first photo.

Healesville Sanctuary (http://www.zoo.org.au/visiting.cfm?zoo_id=2) is an annex of Melbourne Zoo. It is about 1.5 hour drive or so from the city and well worth a visit.

Koala Park Sanctuary (http://www.koalaparksanctuary.com.au/myweb2/default.htm) is a privately run business. IMO it is not as nice as Healesville but still worth a visit if you aren't going to get to Melbourne. It is located at West Pennant Hills, which will take you about 45 minutes to an hour from the Sydney CBD by car.

Wow, nice photos! I have never seen so many together. Those are kangaroos by the way.

Since a picture is worth thousand words, I will link two photos instead of making a long description.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kangaroos-and-tourists.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kangaroos-at-Lone-Pine-Koala-Sanctuary.jpg

Those are photos of Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane as most of you probably know. I understand that koala cuddling is banned by state law in NSW and VIC, however I wonder if there is any place in/near Melbourne or Sydney where I can do the activity shown in the first photo.

You may get quite close to koalas at Featherdale Wildlife Park which is located in the Sydney suburban area.

See http://www.featherdale.com.au/


Regards

David

Healesville Sanctuary (http://www.zoo.org.au/visiting.cfm?zoo_id=2) is an annex of Melbourne Zoo. It is about 1.5 hour drive or so from the city and well worth a visit.

Koala Park Sanctuary (http://www.koalaparksanctuary.com.au/myweb2/default.htm) is a privately run business. IMO it is not as nice as Healesville but still worth a visit if you aren't going to get to Melbourne. It is located at West Pennant Hills, which will take you about 45 minutes to an hour from the Sydney CBD by car.

Definitely Healsville Sanctuary - went there in February - took about an hour to drive there at the weekend from the city and it's a really nice town as well. The main hotel has numerous awards for it's food

You may get quite close to koalas at Featherdale Wildlife Park which is located in the Sydney suburban area.

See http://www.featherdale.com.au/


Regards

David

We can vouch for Featherdale- first-rate wildlife park. Perhaps not as many kangaroos as in your photo but you are in the enclosure with them and can hand-feed and pet them. Also, sometimes staff at Featherdale will let you pet koalas, depending on their demeanor (the koala's, usually!). :D
But that's up to the staff on duty, I believe.

Know it's not Sydney or Melbourne, but wanted to pass along that the same activities are available further south at Cleland park by Adelaide. Roos, wallabies, emus and petting the koalas (just not on their head).

We rented a car and drove out to the Blue Mountains for a day from Sydney.

On the way back, we stopped at Glenbrook National Park, which is probably only about 45-60 minutes from Sydney. In the park, we found a large field with dozens and dozens of roos. Since it was somewhat late in the day (around 4-5pm), any day-trip tour groups that went there were departed, so we pretty much had them all to ourselves.

We didn't go up to them to pet/feed, as this was their natural (not fenced) habitat, so we wanted to respect their home.

I can vouch for Lone Pine near Brisbane and for Featherdale, near Sydney. I've enjoyed watching my children hold the Koalas at both locations and we have a number of great photos of the kids interacting with wildlife at each Park. These places are enjoyable for adults as well. ^

I presently have the 2005/2006 Sydney Entertainment Book and see that there is a 2 for 1 admission coupon for Featherdale http://www.featherdale.com/ and for the Koala Park Sanctuary http://www.koalaparksanctuary.com.au/ which I've never visited. There's also one for a place called "Symbio Wildlife Gardens" http://www.symbiowildlife.com/ in Stanwell Tops, NSW, which I'm not familiar with. These coupons expire on 1 June, 2006. If anyone will be in Sydney in April or May and would like me to send them one of the coupons, PM me and I'll send them out until all 3 are gone. If I get a response within a couple hours of this post, they'll be mailed this week. I'm heading off to Buenos Aires early tomorrow and won't be back in So. California for a week and a half, so later requests can't be handled until after I return.

7 March @ 16:30... Featherdale 2 for 1 Cert gone to first requester... Other 2 remain as of this edit...

www.symbiowildlife.com is about an hour south of Sydney Airport. I've been there a couple of times (I live about 20 minutes drive from it).

I haven't been to featherdale, so I can't really compare the two.

Matt.

I can only comment on Lone Pine and Healesville and there really is no comparison.

Healesville is by far the better of the two. :) ;) :D

Featherdale 2 for 1 Cert gone to first requester... Other 2 remain as of this edit...


Other vouchers for Koala Park Sanctuary and Symbio Wildlife Gardens gone as of this date...

if a trainer is present. Don't think you can hold them. Worwook Cattle farm has a nice roo that you can feed.

if a trainer is present. Don't think you can hold them. Worwook Cattle farm has a nice roo with that you can feed.

Koala Park allowed my friend to pat the koalas, when they were feeding (there are 4 feeding times daily). Thanks Phil for sending the Ent. Book coupon for next time ;)

You may get quite close to koalas at Featherdale Wildlife Park which is located in the Sydney suburban area.

See http://www.featherdale.com.au/


Regards

David

I thought featherdale got closed down??? I'm sure I saw those purveyors of journalistic integrity at A Current Affair or Today Tonight doing some expose on it and then it went bankrupt...guess I was wrong :o