I went here on my way to Nelson Bay and spent 3,5 hrs here. It was a regular weekday and no school holidays, so i could enjoy this place without crowds or queues. Basically you can spend here 30 minutes or the whole day....depending on your personal preferences. It was a quite hot day, so many animals just wanted to rest in shadows, which is a very comprehensible behaviour, though many of them are more active during sunrise or sunset. Nevertheless there were almost all animals to see, many lizards, water dragons, alligators, the two Tazzie Devils were out actively, many free ranging kangaroos, the koalas of course (Many! of them), wallabies and Emus...i only missed the Wombat and the Platypus, i guess they were just sleeping / hiding. But even in an "animal park" you shouldn´t expect animals showing off tricks 24/7 to the public. Grant them their rests and don´t be too disapponted if you don´t see them at once, there are still so many other nice things to see. Or come back later if you can´t see an specific animal on your first round. There is a nice big picnic area (animals will come close :) ), playground for kids, cafe, snackshop etc. You can take a little walk on the backyard behind the Koalas, there is a part you can walk through a more shady rain forest, which chills you down a bit on a hot day. I enjoyed this visit a lot, could take my own time with each animal, but i could imagine that i might have not found it as great with crowds of families and school kids around me. So if you have kids you can go there anytime, if you prefere to do a more exclusive way to see the animals and spend more time to observe them in a more natural way, i recommend going there outside the peak seasons.

I stopped here before backpacking around Australia to learn about all the snakes and critters I will face throughout my travels. They were very informative, but also made me very scared, and aware of all the dangerous animals to look out for when hiking. Their enclosure for crocodile was a bit small, regardless of how cranky he is, he deserves a bigger space to live his best life.

The kangaroos were easy to interact with, and an amazing experience!

If you’re planning on exploring Australia I would recommend stopping here to learn about the wild life.