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apollonaut. Built by People Who've Been

An Apollonaut travel guide

The place behind the visit.

A zoo in the wine country, a change of name and a collection of animals from Australia and beyond offer several ways into the story of the park.

Open grassland and a dam beneath a clear sky in the Hunter Valley
On this page

Hunter Valley Zoo

The park was founded in 2007 as Hunter Valley Zoo, at Nulkaba near Cessnock, in the heart of the Hunter Valley.

In July 2021 it joined Australian Wildlife Parks, and on 19 November 2021 it reopened as Hunter Valley Wildlife Park.

Animals from Australia and beyond

The park lists lions, giraffes, zebras, meerkats, spider monkeys, lemurs, Tasmanian devils, dingoes, koalas, wombats, kangaroos, alligators and lorikeets among the animals in its care.

The park is accredited by the Zoo and Aquarium Association. It describes its own work in conservation and education on its website; this page does not add claims of its own.

The park today

Today the park is part of the Australian Wildlife Parks group, with Featherdale Sydney Wildlife Park and Mogo Wildlife Park. Its walk-through habitats let visitors hand-feed wallabies and kangaroos and walk among the lorikeets.

This history belongs to the place and the people who shaped it. The History page offers a longer introduction, and the timeline gives a short route through selected milestones.

Read at the source

Sources & further reading

Links lead to the original publishers.

The Apollonaut collection

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