The team at Symbio continues to work tirelessly to ensure the safety of our visitors, employees, and animals.
Below you can find the answers to the most commonly asked questions relating to COVID-19, which include details about any changes to the standard Symbio experience, and COVIDSafe measures that are in place.
Visiting Symbio Wildlife Park during COVID-19
What COVIDSafe practices have been implemented?
- All employees, volunteers, and visitors are to sign in using the NSW QR code to support contract tracing.
- Eligible employees and volunteers are protected by COVID-19 vaccinations.
- Health screens are conducted daily for both employees and volunteer zookeepers.
- Health Screens are conducted for visitors who are displaying flu-like symptoms.
- Cashless operations are encouraged.
- Perspex guards are installed at all sales registers to minimise the risk of transmission of COVID-19 between employees and visitors.
- Items for exchange (i.e food/beverage/retail items) are to be placed on the counter rather than passed directly between people.
- Floor markings have been laid in common queue areas to promote social distancing.
- Routine advanced cleans are complete each day on common touchpoint surfaces.
- Some visitor experiences are temporarily unavailable, including happy snaps, animal encounter photos, keeper presentations, selected behind-the-scenes encounters, and Zoo2U mobile zoo bookings.
- Picnic tables have been spread apart to maintain physical distancing between groups.
- Signage covering social distancing and hygiene practices is available around the park.
- Full PPE is available to all employees, volunteers, and first aid officers.
Are your employees COVIDSafe trained?
- All employees and volunteers have taken part in comprehensive COVIDSafe training.
Do you have hand sanitising and washing stations?
- Yes. We have both hand washing and sanitising stations around the park.
- The number of sanitising stations has been increased and are positioned at various key locations.
- Personal bottles of sanitiser are also available for purchase upon entry and in our gift shop.
COVID-19 and animals
- There is no evidence that animals play a significant role in spreading the virus that causes COVID-19.
- There have been global reports of human-to-animal transmission of the virus, which is considered to be rare.
- For the health and welfare of our animals, biosecurity measures are in place for the species that are considered to be potentially more vulnerable.
Are there any amendments to visitor experience offerings?
- The following experiences are unavailable until further notice:
- presentations
- happy snaps animal encounter photos
- primate and lemur behind-the-scenes experiences
- zoo2u mobile zoo experiences.
- Instead of daily presentations, we will be increasing our zookeeper engagement throughout the day.
Are there any amendments to visitor facilities and amenities?
- No – all animal habitats, visitor facilities, and amenities remain OPEN.
How can I/ my family help stop the spread when visiting Symbio?
The most important thing you can do to protect our employees, visitors, animals, and business is to postpone your visit if:
- you have any signs or symptoms of COVID-19
- you have had contact with someone who is confirmed to have COVID-19
- you have recently visited a venue of concern, or reside in a ‘hot spot’
- you are required to self-isolate, or are under any restrictions/lockdown orders as directed by the NSW health authorities.
Other measures you can take include:
Sign in
- All visitors are required to sign in via the Service NSW QR Code to support contact tracing purposes.
Personal hygiene
- Wash your hands frequently with soap and water, or use an alcohol-based sanitiser, and familiarise yourself with best practices for hand hygiene.
- Practice respiratory hygiene, by covering your cough or sneeze with your elbow or tissue.
Maintain social distancing
- Protect yourself and others by maintaining a distance of 1.5m between yourself and others not within your group.
- Educate children about the importance of keeping a distance from others.
Face masks
- Follow up to date NSW health authority advice as it relates to the use of face masks.
- Disposable masks may be purchased upon entry.
Cashless payments
- We are asking visitors to support us as we follow COVIDSafe guidelines and limit cash transactions.
- Cash will still be accepted if you cannot use your card. We ask that all cash be placed on the counter rather than passed directly between people
Keep up to date
- Keep up to date with NSW health authority advice as it relates to new ‘hotspots’ and venues of concern. If you have recently visited a venue of concern, or reside in a ‘hotspot’ area, please follow authority advice.
Other points to consider
- In these unprecedented times, we are working hard to keep up to date with the evolving NSW health advice as it relates to our business.
- Our employees will be required to enforce any requirements mandated by the authorities as it relates to COVID-19.
- Please adhere to NSW health authority advice, and in doing so, support our efforts to maintain a COVIDSafe workplace and wildlife park.
- Refusal to follow NSW health authority advice, and/or aggressive behaviour towards our employees will not be tolerated.
What happens if a visitor arrives at Symbio with flu-like symptoms?
- Please respect the health and well-being of our visitors, employees, and animals and stay home if you are unwell – enjoy your day at Symbio when you are feeling 100%.
- In the event a visitor arrives displaying flu-like symptoms, our employees will ask you a number of screening questions and may also record your temperature. Unless you can provide recent confirmation that you have been tested and the results are negative for COVID-19, if you are unwell, we will respectfully ask you to return again another day when you are feeling better and honour your ticket(s) then.
- Tickets are valid for 24 months from purchase, so in this instance, you will still have plenty of time for them to be used.
Thank you for supporting our COVIDsafe practices. Together we will get through this!
We cannot wait to see you reconnect with family and friends ‘getting wild’ here at Symbio, and we look forward to sharing some exciting new developments with you soon!