Founded in 1930 by the naturalist Noel Burnet, Koala Park Sanctuary at West Pennant Hills is one of the oldest wildlife parks in Australia, created at a time when koalas were being shot in their hundreds of thousands for the fur trade. Burnet, alarmed at the slaughter, set out to study the animals and breed them in a safe environment, and the sanctuary became a pioneer in koala husbandry and home to a koala research hospital. It remains privately owned and run, set in a pocket of rainforest-like garden in Sydney's leafy north-west. Koalas are the obvious headline, and visitors can see them at close range, watch keeper talks and, subject to the rules of the day, have a photograph taken alongside one. But the ten-acre park also keeps a range of other Australian species, including kangaroos and wallabies that can be hand-fed, wombats, dingoes, emus, echidnas and a collection of native birds and reptiles, set among ferns, eucalypts and winding paths. The sanctuary runs a daily timetable of free animal encounters and keeper presentations, which helps families plan their visit and gives the experience an educational backbone. Its long history shows in the older-style enclosures and the museum-like displays, and it presents itself as much as a conservation and education project as a tourist stop, with an emphasis on the threats facing koalas living close to expanding suburbs. Because it lies away from the city centre, most visitors arrive by car, though it is reachable by public transport, and the relaxed scale means a visit can be fitted into a half-day. Free parking, a kiosk and souvenir shop and the shaded grounds make it comfortable for young children. For travellers who want a close, unhurried encounter with koalas and other native animals rather than a large commercial zoo, Koala Park offers a quieter, more old-fashioned alternative with a genuine conservation story behind it. Generations of Sydney schoolchildren have visited on excursions, and the park's small scale and unhurried pace remain part of its charm, allowing visitors to linger at each enclosure rather than being swept along. Its survival as an independent, family-run operation through decades of change in the zoo industry gives it a distinctive character, and its founding story as a refuge during the fur-trade era continues to shape how it presents the animals in its care.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: 84 Castle Hill Road, Sydney, Australia

Telephone: (02) 9484 3141

Website: https://koalapark-sanctuary.com.au

Opening Date: 01/10/1930