The Koala Park Sanctuary is privately owned and run wildlife park located at West Pennant Hills in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 Australia. The park is most famous for its collection of Koala

Koala

The koala is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia, and the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae....

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History

The Koala Park sanctuary was built in the 1920s and opened in October 1930 by the owner Noel Burnet. His reasons for opening a Koala sanctuary were because he was concerned at the large number of koalas being killed for the fur trade. He was concerned that continued hunting of the animal would ultimately lead to its extinction, he spent the remainder of his life dedicated to researching an preserving the animals habitat.

Animals

The park is a walk through wildlife park, most of the animals are contained behind wire and cage style exhibits.
The following is a small list of animals currently held in the parks collection.

• Koala
  Koala
  The koala is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia, and the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae....
  
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• Peacocks
• Fairy Penguins
• Cockatoo
  Cockatoo
  A cockatoo is any of the 21 species belonging to the bird family Cacatuidae. Along with the Psittacidae and the Strigopidae , they make up the parrot order Psittaciformes . Placement of the cockatoos as a separate family is fairly undisputed, although many aspects of the other living lineages of...
  
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• Dingo
  Dingo
  The Australian Dingo or Warrigal is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to...
  
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• Emu
  Emu
  The Emu Dromaius novaehollandiae) is the largest bird native to Australia and the only extant member of the genus Dromaius. It is the second-largest extant bird in the world by height, after its ratite relative, the ostrich. There are three subspecies of Emus in Australia...
  
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• Kangaroo
  Kangaroo
  A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus, Red Kangaroo, Antilopine Kangaroo, Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo. Kangaroos are endemic to the country...
  
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• Wombat
  Wombat
  Wombats are Australian marsupials; they are short-legged, muscular quadrupeds, approximately in length with a short, stubby tail. They are adaptable in their habitat tolerances, and are found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania, as well as...
  
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• Echidna
  Echidna
  Echidnas , also known as spiny anteaters, belong to the family Tachyglossidae in the monotreme order of egg-laying mammals. There are four extant species, which, together with the platypus, are the only surviving members of that order and are the only extant mammals that lay eggs...
  
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• Native Birds

Events

The park has a Live Sheep Shearing exhibition run at various times of the day called "The Stockman's Camp" it gives patrons the experience of a stock camp on an outback station. It also shows sheep shearing an recounts Australian bush stories.

Conservation

The Koala Park Sanctuary opened a Koala Research Hospital in 1930. The hospital cares for sick and injured native animals and releases them back into the wild. It is open to the public and aids in education about native animals and the problems faced by the Koalas living close to human areas.

Controversy

In December 2010 Department of Primary Industries inspectors reported finding ageing and dirty animal exhibits, drainage problems and out-of-date records. The Inspectors issued a series of notices to Koala Park Sanctuary to fix the issues. A newspaper editor attended the park and claimed a number of issues had not been resolved and believed that animals were suffering, however an RSPCA inspector who visited the park said he did not believe any of the animals were suffering or had been neglected or were malnourished.