Salt Ash wildlife park, Oakvale, win gold in NSW Tourism Awards

Oakvale, which has been owned and operated by the Sansom family for more than 40 years, took out the top gong in the Tourist Attractions category, beating out the Hello Koalas Sculpture Trail in Port Macquarie and Aussie Ark in the Barrington Tops.

Park owners Kent and Leanne Sansom said while they were "saddened" they could not celebrate in person with their "industry peers" at the awards in Sydney on Thursday night, they were "elated to accept the award".

"We are honoured to be recognised by the industry with gold at the NSW Tourism Awards and thrilled to be finalists for the Australian Tourism Awards in Tourist Attractions," the couple stated.

"Like many other tourism operators in Australia, there have been many tough times over the last 18 months. But with the local community and our amazing team supporting us, we have managed to continue to provide our visitors with an amazing and educational hands-on wildlife experience.

"We would like to thank our amazing team and wonderful customers for helping Oakvale Wildlife Park grow and develop into the beautiful wildlife park it is today. Our team works very hard every day to ensure the business continues to improve and to deliver above and beyond our customers' expectations.

"We look forward to celebrating with our staff this wonderful achievement."

Oakvale, the sole Port Stephens business in the 2021 tourism awards, was also a finalist in the Excellence in Accessible Tourism category.

Having won gold at the state awards, Oakvale will now represent NSW in the Australian Tourism Awards which will be announced at a gala event in Queensland in March.

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