How Featherdale Wildlife Park put Doonside on the map as a global tourism attraction

When people think of global tourist attractions, Doonside probably won’t feature high on the list. But Featherdale has tourists flocking from across the globe to have their encounter with native wildlife.

Featherdale Wildlife Park general Manager Tony Chiefari, Life Sciences Director Chad Staples and Sales and Marketing Director Sara Ang with Archer the koala.

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When people think of international tourist attractions, Doonside might not always feature high on the list.

But a wildlife park in the centre of suburbia has done much to change this.

Since it opened almost 50 years ago, Featherdale Wildlife Park has become a major drawcard for overseas tourists and has helped cement Blacktown’s place on the tourism map.

With its more than 2000 native animals, the park draws in more than 600,000 tourists every year, making it the most-visited tourism attraction in Sydney west of ANZ Stadium.

Originating as a poultry farm in the early 1950s, Featherdale today employs 115 staff and contributes $3 million a year to western Sydney businesses.

Featherdale visitors Rukghani Cuoray and her sister-in-law Dinuvi Dahamthi pose for photographs with a koala at Featherdale Wildlife Park. Picture: Angelo Velardo

Recently-released figures show 60 per cent of the park’s visitors hail from overseas, with Chinese tourists being the top international visitors, followed by those from Korea and Japan.

Featherdale general manager Tony Chiefari said tourism to the park was booming, with record visitor numbers recorded in the past two years.

Mr Chiefari said the main attraction for visitors was the chance to get up close to native animals.

“Globally, everybody is more interested in animals, whereas 10 years ago, there was probably not that interest,” Mr Chiefari said.

“What we provide is Australian animals in their natural environment and people want to see that.”

He said Featherdale had established Doonside and Blacktown more broadly as a tourism hotspot, with its location providing a practical stopping point from visitors travelling from Sydney to the Blue Mountains.

Buses deliver tourists to Featherdale Wildlife Park from all over the globe. Picture: Angelo Velardo

“Particularly with people internationally, they might know Sydney, they might know Parramatta, they’ll know the Blue Mountains, but not necessarily Blacktown,” he said.

“The day tour operators will take their guests on a trip to the mountains and they might need to fill in some time, so this is a perfect opportunity because they can come here for an hour and it and gives them that animal experience.

“It puts Blacktown on the map as everyone then knows they’re coming to Blacktown and that this great experience is in the middle of western Sydney.”

Sales and Marketing Director Sara Ang said the makeup of tourists to the park had changed since the 1980s and 90s when Japanese tour groups made up a significant chunk of their tourism market.

With economic changes and the advent of the internet, Ms Ang said tourism had evolved.

“Whereas in the 80s and 90s Japanese tourists used to travel in group package tours, with the internet, there’s a lot more independent travellers,” Ms Ang said.

“Tourism from China has grown steadily over the past four or five years and now we’re finding groups from India and Southeast Asia are picking up.

Suli the tree kangaroo is one of Featherdale’s newest residents and is expected to be a hit with visitors in the April school holidays. Picture: Angelo Velardo

“Indonesia is also a big one. The Indonesians are very savvy on social media and we use that to tap into those independent travellers from Indonesia.”

Ms Ang said a significant number of overseas tourists came to the park as part of a trip to Australia to visit relatives living in Sydney.

Domestically, Ms Ang said tourists consisted of young families from Penrith, north-west Sydney and The Hills District.

Featherdale’s life sciences director Chad Staples said that while the composition of the tourism market had changed, the park’s main drawcard had remained the same.

“If you look at the reason people travel to Australia, it is about nature and the wide-open spaces that look different to back home,” Mr Staples said.

“They’re here to see Australia and a big part of that is the fauna.”

Looking to the future, Mr Chiefari hoped the continued growth of the region and infrastructure developments would be positive for the park.

Koalas continue to be a major drawcard for tourists at Featherdale Wildlife Park.

“When the Western Sydney Airport comes on board that will be better, not just for Featherdale, but all western Sydney businesses, because the international guests will be coming into western Sydney rather than the city, so that’s going to help,” he said.

“I think Featherdale is going to continue to grow, and to have this collection of animals is probably going to be impossible for anybody to replicate that.”