Bookable
An Apollonaut travel guide
The place behind the animals.
A laboratory, three families and a growing conservation programme offer several ways into the story of Symbio Wildlife Park.
On this page
An offbeat beginning
Symbio began in 1962 as a small specimen laboratory run by Max and Pat Mapleson, a university worker and a teacher. Symbio Animal Gardens opened in Helensburgh on 18 December 1971.
The Grover family, owners from 1975, renamed it Symbio Koala Gardens and added a farmyard and horse and cart rides.
A family-run park
The Radnidge family bought the park in 2000, renamed it Symbio Wildlife Park and adopted Kaizen, a philosophy of continuous improvement. The second generation of the family runs it today.
The park is home to over 500 animals from Australia and around the world.
Conservation
In 2021 the park set up captive-breeding facilities for threatened native species: Bellinger River and Manning River snapping turtles and stuttering frogs. The not-for-profit Symbio Conservation Foundation followed in 2025.
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.
