Bookable
An Apollonaut travel guide
A park among the gardens.
An introduction to Symbio’s setting in Helensburgh, south of Sydney and close to Wollongong.
On this page
Read the setting
Symbio stands on Lawrence Hargrave Drive in Helensburgh, south of Sydney and close to the City of Wollongong. It has grown from the five-acre property the Maplesons bought in 1970 into a park of landscaped gardens and habitats.
A guide can give context without turning a place into a backdrop. Notice how the enclosures are set among the gardens, where the picnic lawns open out, and how paths link the presentation areas.
Habitats and care
Presentations are timed around feeding, when the animals are most active, and the park’s breeding facilities care for threatened native turtles and frogs.
Begin with a detail and ask how it was made and who looks after it. A photograph alone cannot tell you how a habitat is planned or kept.
A Symbio chapter
Symbio shows one side of the area south of Sydney: a family wildlife park that began as an offbeat animal garden in 1971.
Look at the meeting of the two: Australian animals in their paddocks and enclosures, and animals from around the world beside them.
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 these places or represents the people who run them.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
- Symbio Wildlife Park: Find us
- Symbio Wildlife Park: Park map and facilities
- Symbio Wildlife Park: Our history
- Wikipedia: Symbio Wildlife Park
Links lead to the original publishers.
