Salam.
Haven’t updated the blog for a while because I’ve been to places and taking families sightseeing to lot of tourist attractions around Sydney and Newcastle.
In this travelling Sydney and Newcastle series, I’ll share my review of the animal parks here. These two are the places that I’ve been with my family.
Featherdale Wildlife Park
We have been here last December, with my in-laws. It is a 45-minute drive from Sydney. It is located in Blacktown. The park is also accessible via public buses.
The admission fee is $27 per adult. This place is very popular and it has won some awards and been mentioned in some local newspapers.
You can see variety of animals ranging from kangaroo, koala, wallabies, wombat, Tasmanian devil and more. You can feed the animals here. Get the animal food cup which costs about $1 at the admission counter.
What’s unique about this place is they will provide you a ‘passport’. Each type of animal has their own check point with their stamp and ink pad and you will likely be trying to get all the stamps on your ‘passport’. There are also show times for some of the animals.
Tips : You can get a 20% discount coupon from the Sydney tourist guide-book. The guide-book can be obtained at Sydney airport or any tourist information center/kiosk in Sydney.
Oakvale Farm and Fauna
I have taken my family here last June and July. The farm is a 30-minute drive from Newcastle. It is located just after the Newcastle airport.
The admission is $20 per adult. This place is very popular among the locals. If you are local, you can get the 25% off admission fee for up to 4 people by using the Lucky Locals Discount Card.
Seriously, this is a farm. It has a larger area compared to Featherdale. The variety of animals here are kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, wombats, dingoes, llamas and lots more. It is a farm, so you can expect to see lot of farm animals including goats, cows, horses, chickens, lambs and many more. Kangaroos and the farm animals are let loose and are very tame. They can be fed. Like the former park, you can get an animal food pack for $1.50 at the front counter.
The koalas are best visited during summer as they sleep a lot during the winter (June – August), curling themselves up in balls making it difficult to capture a picture with them.
The unique thing about this place is they also have animal feeding show-times, milking the cow and the most attractive is the tractor trailer ride.
Verdict : Draw
So if you are in Sydney, don’t forget to visit Featherdale Wildlife Park because it is better than the wildlife park in Darling Harbour. But if you are in Newcastle, Oakvale Farm and Fauna is a must visit to enjoy the creation of Allah up close and personal.
In the next entry, I’m going to share a bit about sandboarding. Stay tuned!