As a young boy, I was given a stuffed Koala bear as a toy. It was my favorite and fast created a dream of mine to one day see Koalas in person... Symbio, you made my childhood dream become a reality and made my visit to Australia amazing! I thoroughly enjoyed your Koala experience with my wife and children and still have a smile on my face after returning back home to America. Your staff was great. The park was clean. The experience was great! I will return to Australia and when I do, will visit you again to see the Koalas and Kangaroos! Thank YOU for creating a special memory and helping to check off one of my life's bucket items. read more

Symbio Wildlife Park - Me and my buddy! A childhood dream come true! - Zoos Near Me - Helensburgh, NSW

This wildlife park is about an hour outside of Sydney but it's worth the drive. My advice is to book the behind the scenes experiences. I booked the koala one and it was worth every penny. I got to touch an adult male koala and take pictures with him (I also bought the photo package but you don't need to if someone is willing to not be in the pictures) Afterwards we got to meet a Joey!! I fell in love with the baby koala!! We could not touch it because of vaccination status for the Joey but she was precious (look at my up close pix) Park opens at 9:30 and I suggest you buy tickets online so you don't have to wait in line. Also, you can feed kangaroos and wallabies which was so exciting. You can buy bags of food to feed the kangaroos for $5 ($2 for single bag or $5 for 3 bags). It was worth it but the kangaroos were more interested in eating the grass. Don't worry though bc the zoo has goats and they will eat up your food. Overall, it's definitely a smaller zoo than Sydney's zoo but I like the charm of this zoo. Highlights: Koala, kangaroo, wombat, dingo, red panda, cheetah and emu. I'd highly recommend this zoo as I got to pet a koala and a kangaroo! You can finish the zoo in a few hours. I got here at 9:30 and left at 12 with my behind the scene koala scheduled at 11:15-11:30 (then you wait for the pictures to be transferred to a flash drive). read more

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I LOVE this park!! Symbio allows up close, personal encounters with koalas, kangaroos, emus and other farm animals. You can buy feed for the animals and feed them by hand. The animals are very acquainted with humans which makes for great interaction. The park continually builds upon itself with new enclosures for animals. Visiting is a great family day spent with loved ones! read more

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Amazing. If you're looking for a zoo or wildlife experience to see native Australian (and several other) animals up close, I can't recommend Symbio Wildlife Park enough! Although it may not be as large as some other popular zoos near Sydney, Symbio offers plenty to see for a fun, family-friendly outing. I came with a group of relatives (ages ranging from early 20's to mid 80's), and everyone agreed that they loved their time here. The zoo offers various experiences like photo opportunities and "Close Encounter" packages, but we decided to wander through the zoo on our own. I was actually shocked how close you can get to some of the animals! Highlights for me were seeing the red pandas, an albino echidna, a sleepy wombat, and all the koalas up close. Our group also enjoyed the "Kangaroo Walk Through", which is an enclosed grassy field-like area where you can feed and touch kangaroos and wallabies. Unfortunately most of the roos didn't seem that interested in the food (they were probably full from being fed by previous tourists), but we did find one or two that nibbled on some. Although it wasn't as much as I expected, it still made for some fun photos! We also walked by and happened to catch the Reptile Presentation, which was very informative and allowed everyone to pet and learn about different reptiles. The staff here is clearly very passionate about their jobs! Overall, this is a great family-friendly zoo. I've never seen some of these animals in my life before, and to be able to see them up close was such a delight. Highly recommend! read more

Symbio Wildlife Park - Zoos Near Me - Helensburgh, NSW

tl;dr -- If you're here for petting kangaroos and wallabies, you don't actually need the feed to be able to pet/interact them. They're used to people and probably prefer the fresh grass to the dried grass feed you can buy for $2 AUD (or 3 bags for $5 AUD). Admission for two adults was about $80 AUD when I went. You can pay more to take photos/interact with certain animals, but it's more expensive than the price of admission and doesn't include admission. I'd been to the koala hospital up in Port Macquarie, but the ones at Symbio aren't sick and are relatively lively for koalas. Super cute. The red pandas are also adorable, although we didn't get to see any come down from the trees. We were able to pet the wallabies and kangaroos, as well as some goats, sheep, and alpacas at the little farm. There were a couple of groups (field trips and tourists) there by early afternoon, so it was good we went almost as soon as they opened. Sadly, we didn't end up seeing any dingoes, as they were enjoying the shade/hiding. read more

Symbio is worth a visit if your a tourist or just looking for a day out in Sydney. Its kid friendly and not that far from Sydney. I've been to 2 other Wildlife parks in north west Sydney dozens of times and this park a little different but in a good way. In fact this is an equal favorite. The other parks are more compact and just dedicated to Australian animals where Symbio has a variety from around the world. Symbo takes pride in the park and its kept clean and modern.There is a lot of parking so that shouldn't be of concern. Knowing how these park operate we arrived at 9:30am ( when it opens) and went immediately to the Kangaroo enclosure. We had the entire area to ourselves along with 25+ kangaroos and wallabies. We spent an hour here feeding and patting the kangaroos and wallabies inside the enclosure with them. Remember to purchase some food for $5 when you enter the park. They all become your friends when you have food. The reason we came here immediately after we arrived is that after a while people show up and make there way to the kangaroo enclosure after exploring the park and you end up with a 1 -2 dozen people and its a little crowded, Many times the kangaroos go into the refuge area with so many people. So a tip, get to the park when it opens and come to the kangaroos immediately. We ended up going to the reptile presentation followed by the Koala presentation. Both are conducted in the Koala enclosure. The reptiles were fun and we got to touch a snake and lizard. The Koala presentation was fun and we ended up getting a photo with one and being able to pat another. We ended up purchasing a photo of the group and a koala. We also enjoyed the tiger enclosure, talking cockatoo, Emus, alpaca, farm animals, wombat, red pandas. Unlike the other wildlife parks in Sydney this park is just a little too far for day tourist coaches from the city so you don't have to deal with dozens and dozens of bus groups swamping the park. Its a lot more laid back. Food is a little expensive here but it does go back into the park. One suggestion for the park management is to somehow have a machine near the kangaroo enclosure to purchase handfuls of kangaroo food. We would have purchased more but didn't want to go all the way to the entrance. I plan to stop by again for another visit in summer. Its well worth a visit if you're looking for a place to take the kids for a day. read more

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The highlight of my vacation in Australia was to pet and hand-feed kangaroos and wallabies. I probably sound so silly for saying that, but it's true! At Symbio Wildlife Park, you have the opportunity to pet and take photos with koalas, kangaroos, and wallabies, see wombats, echidnas, and Tasmanian devils up close, and watch a feeding presentation for meerkats and Sumatran tigers. I personally loved the wallabies because they interacted with people more than the kangaroos did. The wallabies actually went up to us and ate the food we give them, whereas the kangaroos minded their own business. I love how they can roam around in a large, grassy enclosure. And be sure to check out the albino echidna too! Symbio opens daily from 9:30am to 5:00pm (except Christmas day). The park isn't that large, so you could probably see all the animals within 2 to 3 hours. There's a swimming pool, covered picnic benches, and grassy areas for you to have a nice lunch or tan too. Overall, Symbio is a great, family-friendly park that's fun, interactive, and memorable. Plus, it's only a 45 minute drive away from Sydney and near the Royal National Park. read more

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Came here yesterday with my family and Boyfriend and we all had a great time. The whole park has recently been renovated and it looks great.Symbio is quite a bit smaller than other zoos and wildlife parks but it is still a great place that you will leave with happy memories. Snakes are my favourite animals so of course the first place we went to was the Reptile House. Inside the reptile house two of the snakes were still Snakelets (the Inland Taipan and the Red Bellied Black Snake), I have never had seen a Snakelet before so I was very excited to see two they were adorable especially the Red Belly who was very playful. I also saw two Woma's who appeared to be mating, another amazing thing I have never seen before. For any snake lovers like myself here is a list of the snakes at Symbio - Pygmy Python - Inland Taipan - Eastern Tiger Snake - Common Death Adder - Red Bellied Black Snake - Jungle Carpet Python - Olive Python - Woma - Centralian Carpet Python - Rough Scaled Python As you enter the park you are able to buy food to feed some of the animals, I bought some food and got to feed some Rock Wallabies. One of them actually held my hand as he ate out of my hand which melted my heart. You can see just about every kind of Australian animal at this park but they also have a few exotic animals such as Cheetas and Red Pandas. One tip, take your own food because the food at the kiosk is not that great. Also if you have kids and are going in summer pack their swimmers because there is a water park. read more

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I have to say this was the highlight of our Australia vacation. We did the zookeeper program and although expensive, it did not disappoint. The staff was phenomenal. Our zookeepers, Maritza and Zara were so knowledgeable, kind and patient. They answered all of our questions and made sure we had our dream come true experience. We had 2 separate groups of 3 for the Zookeeper for a day experience. My husband thought I was crazy as this was all I wanted to do for my anniversary trip, my number one request. Now that we have done it and our full Sydney trip is over, every single one in our group agreed that the Symbio Zookeeper experience was their most favorite memory/experience for the whole trip. HANDS DOWN the best. Snuggling and feeding the animals (many species I may never get to see again), is the best feeling. We fed a cassowary, kangaroos/wallaby, koalas, meerkats, echidna, ring tailed lemurs, a red panda, baby goats, sugar glider and held a snake, American alligator and dragon/lizard got to play with Dingos. It was very expensive for 6 people to do this experience but, it was worth every. single. penny - plus that money goes to the zoo and these animals (many endangered) so again, no regrets at all. I got more than 300 photos emailed to me after our experience (it was part of the package) and they were all amazing. The only bad part of the day was leaving.... which was a bit terrifying if I'm being honest. I'm a big planner and had done my research before, called the facility to make sure we had transportation settled before the trip (we were staying in CBD). We took an Uber to Symbio early in the morning (as recommended) and planned to take the last bus to the train station after our experience. We finished on time and went out and waited, and waited, and waited. Bus never came. I went back inside Symbio and was told that the bus is not that reliable. We called an UBER, it never showed. It started to get dark and cold and staff was leaving. I started panicking, knowing I had my kids and elderly mom out in the cold with no way to get back to our hotel. Thankfully the last 2 employees noticed we were distraught and Emily (our angel from above) offered to take us to the train station (which was the opposite direction from where she needed to go). I am SO grateful for her generosity, taking 6 complete strangers in her car. I was in tears, thankful. To this day, I think about how she literally saved our day. I have no words that can truly show my gratitude. I hope she knows how she touched our lives by that gesture. A million thanks to the zookeepers, staff, amazing animals and of course, Emily, for giving us the best day of our vacation. read more

We went to a few different wildlife parks while in Australia(4) and this one was probably our favorite all-around! We did the AussieZoom tour so we got to see 4 animals up close with a zookeeper and have photos taken with all of them(it was a private tour for the 2 of us). We also got a special food for the kangaroos and wallabys from the zookeeper that they like better then the regular grass so they all came over to us. Beautiful park the animals seem very happy and the keepers and staff were all very friendly. Definitely worth a visit if you are in Sydney, worth the drive! And the AussieZoom tour was a highlight of our 10 day australia trip, be sure to book it in advance if you can as they only offer one per day I believe. read more

Symbio Wildlife Park - feeding a wallaby at Symbio - Zoos Near Me - Helensburgh, NSW

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This place was wonderful! It is clean and has lots of different critters to learn about. I got to meet Harry, the koala. He was super sleepy. We went into an enclosed to meet and feed kangaroos and wallabies. They are friend and will eat from your hand. Please do not bring outside food in. A man was feeding them bread and the kangaroos got excited. It was explained to him that the animals have particular diets and other food can harm them. The staff truly care about the animals. And it is a great learning spot for kids! read more

So sad to see that this place cares more for their animals than human lives of my elderly 80 years old Aunt & Uncle who was told to sit in their car in a 31 degrees heat at 11 am in the morning to wait for me while i see their park. We asked if they can wait inside their sitting area where they can have something to buy and drink to get cooled of and was refused. This place only had one sad, tired koala. There wasn't even a guide to show you or help you around. So, disappointing! read more

Care for a close encounter with the Australian wild life - head to Symbio zoo located just on the border of the Royal national park and the Sutherland shire. It's a place where you can touch, feed and cuddle the wildlife. That's what sets it apart as its different from a typical zoo. You can hand feed the kangaroos and hold the koalas , have your photo taken, its absolutely magical . Its set on 16 acres of parkland and is family run. It's famous for having an hands on experience with wild life from around the world. In the recent years Symbio has taken an active part in species management programs, supporting local and global conservation initiatives. They have a new initiative called the "zoo2u mobile" zoo that travels to many schools across Sydney to enable children to have a fun and interactive learning experience. It's also a very good picnic spot too. Pack a picnic basket, these school holidays and let the kids explore the wildlife. read more

This was definitely worth the trip. Out here from the USA and we were fortunate enough to schedule a private tour. I can't tell you how worthwhile this was. Our tour was incredible. We loved it and will do it again the next time we travel to this side of the planet. read more

This was the best part of our trip to the AU! The people at the park are amazing and the animals are so well taken care. We loved getting to be so up close and personal with the wildlife! read more

Far better than any zoo I have been to as enclosures are large, open, and mostly natural. You can really get close to the animals including feeding kangaroos and wallabies in a huge picnic area totally unsupervised. We also got our picture taken with a koala which is far better than it sounds. The park doesn't have the quantity of species of a large zoo but it seems a more pleasant environment for both animals and guests. The weekday on winter had very few other guests which was great. We paid $5 extra for food for emu, roos, and wallabies and $20 for a 5x7 photo with a koala. read more

This is a very relaxed zoo with natural habitat. It's not so big that you're exhausted and bored by the end - but not so small that you're wondering why you bothered. Feeding the goats and kangaroos was definitely a highlight, along with the red pandas. My only tip - TAKE YOUR OWN FOOD! The Cafe is terrible. Food was atrocious (hot dog came without a sausage until we pointed it out, chips were soggy, there were next to no healthy options available). It was also ridiculously overpriced. Overall though great experience and I would go back again read more

This place is a joke I called to make an enquire about the parks cost and opening hours. The girl on the phone was so rude about it all so we might take our day trip of 80 people else where.. Group discount was $1.50 each adult and $1 off the kids family pricing stayed the same but we had to collect the money at the front before anyone walked in.... I have taken my kids to Symbio Park years ago and nothing till this day has change bar the entry prices. I wouldn't recommend this park to anyone it has a few animals here and there, not much to see and when the staff are rude that then tells you choose a different zoo... Lots of good ones out there. read more

Outstanding! So much better than the other Zoos in Sydney! Not as big as Taronga and much nicer than Featherdale. The exhibits are really well kept and the park is very clean. We are thinking about getting year passes which are paid for in only 2 visits. A GREAT value to hand feed so many of Australians iconic animals. read more