Australia has some of the most extraordinary wildlife on earth — most of it found nowhere else. Kangaroos, koalas, wombats, platypus, echidnas, quolls, Tasmanian devils and over 800 species of bird inhabit this ancient continent, and the opportunities to see them up close are genuinely outstanding. Whether you want a hands-on wildlife sanctuary where you can hold a koala, a drive-through park where animals roam free, or a genuine wilderness encounter in a national park, Australia delivers.
The quality of Australia’s wildlife parks and sanctuaries varies enormously, though, and choosing the right ones matters. The best places prioritise animal welfare, conservation and genuine education. They give you real, meaningful encounters with Australian wildlife — not just photo opportunities with stressed animals in inadequate enclosures. This guide focuses on the wildlife parks and sanctuaries that do it right, and tells you what to look for when choosing where to go.
I’ve visited wildlife parks across Australia over many years and the difference between a good one and a poor one is immediately obvious. The animals at the best parks are relaxed, healthy and appropriately housed. The staff are knowledgeable and passionate. The conservation work is real and transparent. These are the ones worth visiting.
📋 TL;DR – Best wildlife parks and sanctuaries in Australia
- 🐨 Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary (QLD): The world’s largest koala sanctuary — you can hold a koala here, legally.
- 🦘 Cleland Wildlife Park (SA): Walk freely among kangaroos and wallabies in beautiful Adelaide Hills bushland.
- 🐊 Australia Zoo (QLD): Steve Irwin’s legacy — enormous, conservation-focused, and home to extraordinary wildlife.
- 🦁 Taronga Zoo (NSW): World-class zoo with harbour views and outstanding conservation programs.
- 😈 Devils@Cradle (TAS): The best place to see Tasmanian devils in the wild landscape they evolved in.
- 🦜 Healesville Sanctuary (VIC): Victoria’s finest wildlife sanctuary — platypus, lyrebirds, wombats and more in natural bushland.
- 🦅 Territory Wildlife Park (NT): Outstanding Northern Territory wildlife — saltwater crocs, freshwater crocs, and remarkable birdlife.
🐨 Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary — Brisbane, Queensland
Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is the world’s largest and oldest koala sanctuary, holding over 130 koalas on its grounds in Fig Tree Pocket, about 12 kilometres from central Brisbane. It opened in 1927 and has been a fixture of Brisbane tourism ever since — with good reason. The sanctuary does excellent conservation work, breeds koalas for release, and provides one of the most memorable wildlife encounters in Australia.
The big draw is the koala hold — Queensland is one of the few Australian states where visitors are legally allowed to hold a koala, and Lone Pine does it well. Each koala has a strictly limited handling schedule and is monitored carefully. The experience of having a koala sitting quietly on your arm, occasionally yawning or adjusting position, is genuinely extraordinary — they are heavier than they look, remarkably soft, and almost entirely unbothered by the whole thing.
Beyond the koalas, Lone Pine has an excellent range of Australian wildlife — kangaroos and wallabies roam freely in a large paddock where visitors can feed and pat them, there are wombats, Tasmanian devils, platypus (hard to see but present in a purpose-built enclosure), dingoes, and an excellent reptile house. The birds of prey show is well-staged and educational. Allow at least three hours.
👉 Book a Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary tour from Brisbane on GetYourGuide →
🦘 Cleland Wildlife Park — Adelaide Hills, South Australia
Cleland Wildlife Park sits in the Adelaide Hills at 750 metres elevation, in beautiful native bush about 20 minutes from the city. It’s one of the most relaxed and rewarding wildlife parks in Australia — the animals are not in enclosures in the traditional sense, but roam freely through the bushland and interact with visitors naturally. Walking through Cleland and having a grey kangaroo hop up expecting to be fed is one of the most immediately charming wildlife experiences in the country.
The kangaroo and wallaby population at Cleland is enormous, and the animals are entirely accustomed to humans — you can feed them by hand (food bags are available at the entry) and they will lean into you, nuzzle your hands and occasionally try to climb on you in pursuit of more food. Wombats are also present and surprisingly bold — they’re large, solid and completely unbothered by visitors approaching. Koala holds are available at scheduled times.
🐊 Australia Zoo — Beerwah, Queensland
Australia Zoo, north of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast, was the creation of Steve Irwin and is now run by his family following his death in 2006. It is enormous — over 100 hectares — and houses an extraordinary range of wildlife from Australia and around the world. The Irwin family’s commitment to conservation is genuine and widely respected: Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors is a major conservation charity that funds wildlife rescue and habitat protection worldwide.
The Crocoseum — a large amphitheatre where wildlife shows involving crocodiles, birds and reptiles are staged — is the centrepiece and the shows are genuinely impressive. The crocodile feeding demonstration is dramatic and educational. Beyond the Crocoseum, the zoo has excellent naturalistic exhibits for African and Australian animals, a terrific wombat and koala area, and an extensive bird section. It’s a full day (at least) and the quality of animal care is evident throughout.
🦁 Taronga Zoo — Sydney, New South Wales
Taronga Zoo sits on a hillside above Sydney Harbour in Mosman, accessible by ferry from Circular Quay in about 12 minutes. The combination of world-class zoo animals and one of the great harbour views in the world makes it a genuinely special place — watching a giraffe walk past with the Sydney skyline behind it is a surreal and memorable experience.
The zoo’s Australian wildlife section is excellent — wombats, echidnas, platypus (visible through underwater viewing), kangaroos, wallabies, reptiles and birds. The free-flight bird show is staged on a grassy slope with harbour views and is one of the finest wildlife demonstrations in Australia. Taronga is also deeply serious about conservation — it leads breeding programs for endangered species including the Western Plains Grassland Earless Dragon and the Regent Honeyeater.
🌊 Getting to Taronga Zoo
The ferry from Circular Quay to Taronga Zoo Wharf is the best way to arrive — the views of the harbour on the crossing are superb and the ferry drops you at the zoo’s lower entrance. From there, a cable car takes you to the top of the zoo and you work your way down through the exhibits back to the wharf. This means the walk is largely downhill, which makes a full day much more comfortable. The zoo is open 365 days a year.
😈 Devils@Cradle — Cradle Mountain, Tasmania
Tasmanian devils are now extinct on the Australian mainland and survive only in Tasmania, where a serious facial tumour disease has reduced their wild population dramatically. Devils@Cradle, a wildlife sanctuary at the entrance to Cradle Mountain National Park, houses devils rescued from the wild and contributes to breeding programs designed to maintain a genetically diverse insurance population.
For more inspiration, check out 7 Days in Tasmania Itinerary and Things to Do in Melbourne.
Tasmanian devils are extraordinary animals — built like a small, very solid dog, jet black with white chest markings, and capable of making some of the most alarming screaming noises in the natural world. At Devils@Cradle you can observe them up close during feeding sessions, where their jaw strength and aggressive competitiveness over food is genuinely impressive. The sanctuary is small and personal, with knowledgeable staff who will tell you everything you want to know about devil conservation. Combined with a stay at Cradle Mountain, it’s an outstanding wildlife experience.
🦜 Healesville Sanctuary — Yarra Valley, Victoria
Healesville Sanctuary is managed by Zoos Victoria and sits in beautiful bushland in the Yarra Valley, about 65 kilometres east of Melbourne. It’s Victoria’s finest wildlife sanctuary and one of the best places in Australia to see platypus — the sanctuary has platypus in a large, purpose-built exhibit with underwater viewing, and unlike most platypus enclosures, the animals here are regularly active during visitor hours.
The sanctuary’s collection is exclusively Australian wildlife, and the depth of the collection is impressive — wombats, echidnas, quolls, Tasmanian devils, dingoes, eastern grey kangaroos, red-necked wallabies, tree kangaroos, koalas, a full reptile house and an outstanding bird section that includes lyrebirds (one of the most remarkable birds in the world). The Wildlife Health Centre — a fully functioning veterinary hospital with public viewing — gives visitors a real understanding of the conservation work happening behind the scenes.
👉 Book a Yarra Valley and Healesville wildlife tour from Melbourne on GetYourGuide →
🦅 Territory Wildlife Park — Darwin, Northern Territory
Territory Wildlife Park is one of Australia’s finest regional wildlife parks and an essential stop on any visit to Darwin. Located at Berry Springs, about 60 kilometres south of Darwin, the 400-hectare park showcases the extraordinary wildlife of the Northern Territory — saltwater crocodiles, freshwater crocodiles, barramundi, northern quolls, black-footed rock wallabies, and an extraordinary array of tropical birds.
The park is large enough that it takes a full day to explore properly — a train runs a circuit around the perimeter and there are walking tracks between exhibits. The birds of prey show is excellent, and the nocturnal house (housing bilbies, bandicoots, tree kangaroos and other nocturnal species) is one of the finest in Australia. The billabong walk, where you can observe the transition between saltwater and freshwater ecosystems, is genuinely educational and atmospheric.
🌿 Wildlife encounters beyond the parks
Some of the finest wildlife experiences in Australia happen outside formal parks and sanctuaries entirely. Little penguins waddle ashore at Phillip Island every night at sunset, watched by thousands of visitors on purpose-built viewing stands. Wild dolphins come into the shallows at Monkey Mia in Shark Bay every morning. The fur seal colony at Seal Rocks in Victoria can be observed from a tour boat. Wild quokkas on Rottnest Island near Perth approach visitors with complete fearlessness. Wild wallabies graze at campsites across Australia.
These uncontrolled, genuinely wild encounters are often the most memorable. They require more patience and less certainty than a visit to a wildlife park, but the reward — an animal choosing to approach you, on its own terms, in its own environment — is something a zoo can’t replicate. Seek out both types of experience and Australia’s wildlife will genuinely astonish you.
Whatever your interest in Australian wildlife — from the casual appreciation of a koala selfie to the serious study of Australia’s extraordinary biodiversity — the parks and sanctuaries in this guide will give you an experience that’s both memorable and meaningful. Australian wildlife is extraordinary, vulnerable, and worth protecting. The best wildlife parks make that case compellingly.
