Bookable
An Apollonaut travel guide
Between the city and the mountains.
An introduction to Featherdale’s setting in Doonside, near Blacktown, between the centre of Sydney and the Blue Mountains.
On this page
A park in the suburbs
Featherdale stands at 217 Kildare Road in Doonside, a few minutes from Blacktown station and the Great Western Highway, in the suburbs that stretch from the city towards the Blue Mountains.
A local guide can give context without turning a neighbourhood into a backdrop. Respect homes, working businesses and the people who live around the park.
Paths, shade and habitats
The park describes a flat, 7-acre site with smooth paved paths, shady places to rest and enclosures with double-gated entries, which make it easy to move between the animals at your own pace.
Begin with a detail and ask what it is for: a perch placed for a bird, a burrow for a wombat or branches set out for the koalas. A photograph alone cannot tell you how an enclosure is cared for from day to day.
A Featherdale chapter
Featherdale shows a different side of Sydney: a former poultry farm in the western suburbs that became a home for Australian animals more than 50 years ago.
Make room for context
Pair this reading with the park’s history and the Journal. This is an introduction for visitors, not a claim that our team manages the park, cares for its animals or represents the people who do.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
