Gold Coast theme parks with big thrills – and even bigger impact

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is one of Queensland’s most iconic destinations for animal encounters, and learning all about Australia’s cuddly, scaly and feathered creatures. It’s also a not-for-profit organisation that reinvests all proceeds back into wildlife and conservation programs.

Perhaps most importantly, it’s home to one of the largest and busiest wildlife hospitals in the world, treating more than 14,000 sick, injured and orphaned wildlife annually – including over 600 koalas. And it’s all free of charge to the community and carried out on the kindness of donations.

One of the most enriching ways to make a donation is to book a private 60-minute tour of the wildlife hospital. The behind-the-scenes experience is an opportunity to learn about the medical care each animal receives, watch live surgery (if scheduled), and discover the rehabilitation area where turtles, echidnas, koalas and more are nursed back to health. 

Vital tiger research

When you think Gold Coast, you probably don’t think tigers. Unless you’ve been to Dreamworld.

Behind the big thrill rides is a true wildlife warrior – and the Dreamworld Wildlife Foundation (DWF) has raised more than $3.5 million dollars to help save species such as tigers, koalas, bilbies and tree kangaroos, through backing global conservation initiatives and fostering education around endangered species.

It’s believed there are less than 4,000 tigers remaining in the wild and their survival is constantly threatened. DWF is the largest zoological contributor to tiger conservation in the world, and drives anti-poaching and vital community engagement initiatives.

How can you help? Dreamworld's Tiger Island is home to 9 Sumatran and Bengal tigers – and every visitor should spend time here to see a daily ranger presentation and learn fascinating facts about these felines. Make a donation, sign up for the ‘Adopt a Tiger’ program, or book a tiger feed experience. This is the only place in Queensland where you can tong-feed a tiger – and proceeds are invested back into DWF’s programs.

Giving the gift of memories to Aussie families

The Gold Coast theme parks pony up with some of the bravest charities around – such as Make a Wish, Starlight Foundation– to give thousands of incredibly sick, disabled, and underprivileged kids a chance to do what the parks do best: live and laugh. Your ticket and your patronage helps to make that happen.

Marine rescue, rehabilitation, and research

Australia’s Sea World is home to incredible marine life experiences – but did you know they have a rescue team on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year?

Since its establishment, the rescue team has attended many hundreds of strandings and entanglements of dolphins, whales, birds and sea snakes, pioneering new rescue techniques and equipment. In fact, 2023 was one of the busiest on records for the team rescuing over 430 individual marine animals. Injured animals are brought to Sea World and given veterinary care with the ultimate aim of returning these animals back to the wild.

The Sea World Foundation conducts and supports vital research projects into marine wildlife, wildlife health, ecology and disease. Partnering with Queensland universities, the crew spends hundreds of hours each year on research and conservation, with major projects for humpback whales, dugongs, grey nurse sharks and dolphins ongoing.

And it’s all funded from the cost of your ticket. That means every entry into the park is also a vote to keeping our oceans alive.

Planting trees so koalas feast and thrive

It takes up to 1,000 gum trees to feed just one koala for a year. And with over 50 koalas calling Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary home, along with the hundreds more that come through Currumbin Wildlife Hospital annually, these trees are in high demand as an essential food source. To ensure there’s enough food to go around, the sanctuary has four plantations – totally around 38,000 eucalypt trees. However, these trees have a limited lifespan due to constant harvesting.

The ‘Tree to Me’ initiative helps Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary continue to plant eucalypt trees, and for just a $15 donation you can fund a tree planting and help support the future generation of koalas.  

Over at Paradise Country, the crew is actively working to help preserve our Australian wildlife through onsite and offsite conservation efforts – and the Save A Mate campaign collaborates with the University of Queensland on research projects to help conserve koala populations nationwide. The park has several eucalypt plantations for sustainable leaf supply to their koalas, so much-needed food resources for wildlife are not impacted.

Supporting skills development for the next generation

Proving that a private sector partner and a big name footy player can kick some serious community goals, Dreamworld has teamed up with the Preston Campbell Foundation to help Indigenous youth get valuable work experience at the park’s Presto’s Training Café.

Participants are enrolled in a hospitality course with practical experience taking place at the Dreamworld café, an important kick-start for careers in the service industry. Stop by for a lunch that feels as good as it tastes, with coffee, bush tucker inspired dishes and desserts to keep your energy up for the rest of your day.

Keeping our oceans clean

Keeping our oceans and beaches debris-free is key to reducing marine life injuries and entanglements. The Sea World Foundation recently hosted its fifth annual Ocean Clean Up event along the Gold Coast Seaway, with 279 land and dive volunteers removing almost 250kgs of marine debris from the area.

Want to get involved? Keep an eye out for the announcement of 2025 Ocean Clean Up – or take on another of Sea World’s citizen science project. TurtleWatch needs volunteers to help walk Gold Coast beaches during nesting season for loggerhead and green turtles, cleaning up turtle habitats, monitoring active nests and helping raise awareness. Gold Coast locals and visitors can also report dolphin sightings to Dolphin Research Australia, which contributes to the understanding the long-term status, ecology and protection of local dolphin populations. For more information, head to Sea World Foundation’s website.

Breeding programs for some of our smallest endangered wildlife

Small but mighty, and mighty important. Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary manages breeding programs for several pint-sized endangered species.

The Kroombit Tinkerfrog (Taudactylus pleione) is listed as critically endangered and surveys reveal that there are less than 200 left in the wild. The sanctuary’s conservation team was the first in the world to successfully breed a Taudactylus species – and in 2023 the team, along with Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services, were proud to release their first bred in specialist care Kroombit Tinkerfrogs into the wild.

The sanctuary has also been involved in Eastern Bristlebird conservation for more than 10 years, and their natural breeding program is helping bring the species back from extinction due to habitat loss and the impact of bushfires. 

None of these special heart-felt initiatives would happen if not for the millions of people who visit our Gold Coast theme parks each year.  Your entry tickets help to make the lives of others (four-footed and two) so much better.

Keen to plan a visit? Check out how to do these theme parks in a day: Dreamworld, Movie World, Sea World, Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary and Paradise Country.