Featherdale Wildlife Park featherdale

boof

boof

Well-Known Member
20+ year member
I'm thinking of going to Featherdale through the week. I know nothing about this place at all. I think it is about an hours drive from my place. Has anyone got any idea what they have? Is it natives only? Is it worth a look or not? I just done a search and it is only mentioned a few times on zoobeat so didn't get much info from other zoo lovers. i noticed that Ara mentioned its bird collection in a thread about tarongas birds. Ara mentioned that it had a good collection. Thats a good sign. Hope someone can help me with info.
 
Boof have you tryed looking for a website for them, heard they have quolls
 
Their web page isn't the best. And i was looking for the inside mail from others from this forum. Did see on their web page they have gouldians so thats a start.
 
My grandad breeds gouldians and i just read how you hate mutations he has three variations, Lutino and two natural occuring types.
 
hi i was there about three years ago. It was a very nice place with some very exciting species, though being from the UK most oz spcies are exciting. They had quoll,quokka, skua, yellow tailed rock wallaby, austrailain bustard, bee eaters, an albino kookaburra, ghost bats and a whole lot more. i think it was only native species and was more of a rescue centre than a zoo.
 
i was there a couple years ago too. strong emphasis on native animals, the only exotics i saw from memory were ostriches and peacocks. large collection of birds of brey, with many species of owls, buzzards, and eagles.
 
It would be my pick for the most comprehensive display of Australian wildlife in NSW . It has improved over the years . Each time I am in Sydney for longer than a transfer at the airport , I try to visit it .
I enjoy it because as a NZer , it houses alot of what we would call "exotics" but for an Australian , it will be only natives
 
exotics at featherdale

there are no longer any ostriches at featherdale - i never recall them ever having ostriches anyways! they have some sun conures, indian ringnecks, mandarin ducks, peafowl (blue), phesants, and dingoes! lol if you want to call em introduced.

they have an extensive array of birds and mammals, new bilby and ghost bat exhibit, yellow footed rock wallabies in a new exhibit, yes they have quolls, lots of em they breed them, tassie devils, many cassawerys including offspring hatched at the park and brolgas also bred at the park, bustards, skus, lots of herons, glossy ibis, etc any more

i believe some exhibits are over croweded and the whole park is quite 'cagey'... and they have litttle room to expand,

any replys?
 
Went to featherdale today. They have a heap of tiger quolls which were out enjoying the sunshine. They are a good looking animal. Bigger than i thought they would be. They had eastern quolls but i couldn't spot any. i counted about 5 cassawories. 1 was a chick born in November last year. The yellow footed rock wallaby exhibit was good. All the exhibits are clean and tidy. The big salt water croc is a crowd favourite. A group of tourists from England stood looking at it for 5 minutes arguing whether it was real or not. It wasn't until it moved that a couple of them finally accepted that it was real.
I took my wife and my one year old daughter. They enjoyed the free ranging wallabies and I enjoyed the birds. Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours although I think it would be crowded if you went on a weekend.
 
Sounds like you had a good day Boof, Yes the quolls are nice so they had at least two species of them?
 
My local Zoo, Kyabram Fauna Park has eastern quolls and tiger quolls and i have to say that the eastern quolls were a lot smaller then i expected and the tiger quolls were all out of proportion to what i expected. I thought tiger quolls would be lean and the perfect hunters but they are kind of tubby and look like they're waddleing when they walk.
 
@Pat--Tiger quolls can be deceiving--even when they look "tubby" they can move live the wind. Take your eyes off them for even a second and they can cover a lot of ground very quickly! Females also look quite large during the mating season--they tend to develop an area on the back of the neck and extending out from that that looks like "double chins". It gives the male something to hang onto during breeding so that the female is not badly injured.
 
I did get to see their agility because one of them was climbing all over the place and annoying the other one when all the other one wanted to do was sleep.
 
Featherdale got off to a "flying start" when they originated the "Have Your Photo Taken With A Koala" money-making idea. Nowadays almost everywhere does it but Featherdale originated the idea many years ago and consequently made millions of dollars out of the hey-day of Japanese tourism.

That's when the place went from a dusty ex-poultry farm with rows of narrow single-pair aviaries and such species as Red Deer and Rhesus monkeys to a specialist Australian animal collection with lush planting and large walk-through aviaries.
 
The last time I was there , I was excited to see that they had a" free range " perentie ! Unfortunately , the staff were not aware of this arrangement until I asked them about it , and they suddenly realised that the thing had escaped from its enclosure . ..... that was my highlight of that visit !
 
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