Taronga Zoo by Ferry From Sydney
Part of the full Sydney's Harbour Foreshore: A Layover From SYD
Taronga Zoo sits on a steep harbour hillside at Mosman, 12 minutes by ferry across the water from Sydney’s Circular Quay, and a visit there means giraffes grazing in front of the city skyline, koalas and a platypus house on the way down, and Bradleys Head’s lighthouse on the headland beyond.
Giraffes in front of the city skyline at Taronga Zoo
Taronga Zoo Sydney opened on 7 October 1916 on the northern shore of the harbour, and its 28 hectares now hold more than 5,000 animals of about 350 species. Much of the site faces south across the water, and the giraffe enclosure is the place that makes the most of it: the animals stand in front of an unbroken view of the city across the water, with Sydney Tower in the middle of it.
The zoo opens every day of the year from 9.30am to 5pm, with last entry at 4pm, and adult tickets start at about A$55. Zoo entry tickets can be bought in advance through a tours and activities platform for a fixed date. The daily seal presentation and free-flight bird show, the koalas, the platypus house and the Tasmanian devil conservation centre are all included, so a single ticket covers the whole day.
The top entrance on Bradleys Head Road
The zoo’s main gate is the top entrance on Bradleys Head Road, a cream-painted gatehouse with a domed tower over the arch, at the highest point of the site. Entering here matters because everything else is downhill from it: the paths descend in long ramps through the enclosures to the lower gate beside the ferry wharf.
A public bus runs from the ferry wharf up the hill to the top entrance, and on holidays and busy weekends the zoo adds its own shuttle on the same trip.
Taronga Zoo’s ferry wharf at the bottom of the hill
The ferry from Circular Quay pulls in at Taronga Zoo ferry wharf, a covered pontoon at the foot of the wooded slope below the zoo’s lower gate. For decades the Sky Safari cable car carried visitors from here to the top of the site, but it closed in January 2023 at the end of its working life and is being rebuilt with bigger gondolas that take prams and wheelchairs, with reopening planned for late 2027 at the earliest. Until then the climb from the water to the top gate is either the bus or a steep walk, and the paths inside rise and fall on ramps the whole way down, which is a long way to push a wheeled suitcase.
Bradleys Head’s lighthouse and HMAS Sydney’s mast
Bradleys Head, the headland at the tip of the same peninsula as the zoo, at the end of Bradleys Head Road, is part of Sydney Harbour National Park and free to walk onto. At the tip stand a small lighthouse built in 1905, the foremast of the cruiser HMAS Sydney, which fought the Royal Australian Navy’s first naval engagement of the First World War, and a Doric stone column salvaged from the old Sydney Post Office, which with a matching mark at Fort Denison was once used to time ships on speed trials.
The view back across the water takes in the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House together from the north side. The foreshore track along the water between Whiting Beach and the zoo wharf is shut while the cable car is rebuilt, so the way to the headland is along the road, roughly 20 to 30 minutes on foot from the top entrance.
The zoo ferry connects with the airport train at Circular Quay
The ferry back from Taronga Zoo wharf to Circular Quay takes about 12 minutes, and Circular Quay station, directly behind the wharves, is on the T8 Airport & South Line, whose trains run round the City Circle and on to Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (SYD) in about 20 minutes to the International Airport station under Terminal 1. Allow about an hour from the zoo gate to the terminal with the waits. The airport stations add a station access fee close to A$19 for an adult on top of the ordinary fare, and Sydney Airport suggests being at the terminal three hours before an international departure, so leaving the zoo at closing time suits a flight from about 9pm onward. Circular Quay is also the midpoint of the harbour walk from The Rocks round to the Opera House, for a day long enough to fit both.
Everything at Taronga runs downhill from one gate to the other, and the zoo is easier walked without a suitcase.
Frequently asked questions
What should I do during a layover near Taronga Zoo in Sydney?
Take the 12-minute ferry across the harbour, go up to the top entrance, and work downhill through the zoo past the giraffes, the koalas and the platypus house to the seal and bird shows, finishing back at the wharf. Book the zoo ticket ahead. With an hour spare, Bradleys Head, the headland beyond the zoo with a lighthouse and a warship's mast, is free and has the same view back to the city.
Is Taronga Zoo hard going with a pram or a toddler?
It is steep. The site drops down a harbour hillside from the top entrance to the ferry wharf, and the paths between enclosures are long ramps. Enter at the top and walk down rather than the other way round. The Sky Safari cable car that used to lift visitors from the wharf to the top has been closed since January 2023 while it is rebuilt with larger gondolas that take wheelchairs and prams; until it reopens, planned for late 2027 at the earliest, a bus from the wharf is the way up without the climb.
Are the seal and bird shows at Taronga Zoo included in the ticket?
Yes. The Seals for the Wild presentation and the free-flight bird show both run daily and are covered by general admission, along with the keeper talks, so plan the walk down the hill around their times rather than paying for anything extra.
Can I get to Taronga Zoo without the ferry?
Yes. Public buses from the city run to the top entrance on Bradleys Head Road, which is the gate to use anyway, since the zoo is laid out downhill from there. The ferry is the direct link from Circular Quay, though, and the 12-minute crossing is part of the reason to come this way.