FEATHERDALE Wildlife Park may be forced to close if the proposed Sydney Zoo opens next year, the Doonside attraction says.
However, Sydney Zoo managing director Jake Burgess has rejected the claim the two cannot coexist, and said they could work together to create the “Gold Coast” of animal attractions in western Sydney.
Featherdale may lose up to 84 per cent of visitors if the zoo opened 6km away in Bungarribee, a report commissioned by the wildlife park’s parent company Elanor Investors Group said.
“The extent of the impacts the Featherdale Wildlife Park is likely to sustain from the Sydney Zoo can potentially lead to its closure,” the report stated.
Though the prediction was the “worst case scenario”, at the very least the zoo would “severely” affect Featherdale, Elanor spokesman David Lowe said.
“Our main concern is we feel this Sydney Zoo is not living up to the integrity of sustainable development,” he said.
“We don’t consider sustainable development to mean opening up something else to replace something that is already in place,” he said.
The report was part of one of 54 submissions made in response to the zoo’s Environmental Impact Statement released last year.
It had never been the zoo’s intention to push Featherdale out of the market, Mr Burgess said.
The small number of native animals would be part of an Aboriginal cultural exhibit, he said.
The zoo was willing to partner with Featherdale to work out joint ticketing to “grow the pie for everyone”, Mr Burgess said.
“So similarly to what we see in the Gold Coast where there’s a bunch of ostensibly similar attractions but they are all working together to create their own gravitational pull.”
Taronga Zoo also expressed concerns in a submission, including about the size of animal enclosures and food storage areas.
But the enclosure sizes would meet or be larger than required, Mr Burgess said.
Other submissions included concerns over the introduction of exotic African grasses to the area, but Mr Burgess said only native plants would be used.
