If you want to get up close to Australia's wildlife, then I guarantee Featherdale is the place to go. We jumped on a day tour to the Blue Mtns and stopped at Featherdale on the way. I fell in love with the joey who greeted us on arrival with his keeper and wanted to take him home with us. We were able to get right up close to the koals and pat them. Then we fed the kangaroos out of icecream cones! There were so many animals to see with my favourite being the Ghost Bat and Bilby enclosure. We also got to see the huge crocodile get fed as well - but I think they only do this once a day.

There were plenty of people there but it wasn't overly crowded. It was really easy to get around and the best thing was, we got up really close to everything.

During our last visit to Sydney in October 2006 we visited Featherdale with our 16 month old daughter. PERFECT. We used public transportation to go there. From Sydney Town Hall to Blacktown (about 40 min), then a 10 minutes bus ride took us just in front of the park door. It was a weekday so half empty. The park hosts all typical Australian wildlife except platypus. There are literally loads of wallabies and kangaroos hanging around or sleeping, ready to be fed or pat. Excellent pictures. Our baby was delighted. We also enjoyed the koalas who seemed very active, jumping from tree to tree and looking happy. You can pet a koala and take pictures with no added fee. The fences are so low that you could bet any kangaroo or wallabee just doesn't bother escaping. You can also see very, very close all kind of birds, tasmanian devils, dingos, quolls, coqqas, some snakes and so on. Recently they added a bilby environment. The overall atmosphere was very farm-like, with peacocks and baby emus running around instead of typical wester chicken and ducks. The snack bar was OK serving premade sandwiches and hot burgers or steaks. (warning: the pamphlet we got in Sydney said something like "open air barbecue restaurant", which we saw, but it was not operating). For those who care, the souvenir shop area was very well furnished. TIP: on the way back, we got off the train in Parramatta and took a ferry back to Sydney. Fabulous views. Just check the ferry schedules in advance as there were only a couple late afternoon.

Featherdale Wildlife Park is in a western suburb of Sydney, and was maybe a 45 minute drive from Darling Harbour. They have all kinds of animals here, such as wallabies, kangaroos, koalas, Tasmanian devils, peacocks, emus and kookaburras. You can feed the wallabies and the kangaroos, which get to roam about freely in certain parts of the park. A park employee will also pick out a koala to place on a special tree, then visitors are allowed to walk up and have a touch or a picture taken with it. It is a very neat experience, especially for my husband who had never been that close to koalas or wallabies before.

They have a small snack bar in the park for lunch and BBQs are available if you feel like packing your own meal.

The middle of the week is a good time to avoid crowds, but a school trip was there during lunchtime so it was quite noisy in the petting zoo area. Later in the afternoon, buses start arriving with tourists coming back from the Blue Mountains.

You get to see every Australian native animals here except the platypus. You get to pet the Koala and hand feed Kangaroos, Wallabies and Emu. You can get up close to other animals. The park is compact but you can easily spend more than 2 hours here (adults and kids). It is worth the 1 hour train ride and 5 minutes bus ride from Sydney (one way).