Sydney and Surrounds
Kids in The Park
The fabulous school holidays program of activities is back again at Sydney Olympic Park! Sydney Olympic Park’s popular Kids in the Park program is on for the 45th time from 27 June – 12 July and has more than 60 varied activities – many of which are indoors – to keep any child of all ages entertained and out of the cold during the Winter school holidays.
With activities tailored to the sporty, adventurous, creative, and nature-loving kids, every child is sure to find something they enjoy from the activities on offer.
This time around Kids in the Park is offering 12 free activities and 14 good-value options at less than $25.
Kids in the Park activities are always great fun for kids and a highlight of the school holidays!
Click here for the full Kids in the Park winter 2015 program
Cool Yule @ Darling Harbour
There’s heaps of Cool Yule fun for the whole family at Darling Harbour over the school holidays – from snow-pits for the kids to open-air ice-skating, mind-blowing ice-carvings, a floating iceberg and more, Darling Harbour Cool Yule is a celebration of winter, proudly presented by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority and Darling Harbour Alliance. The fun happens every day and night of the winter school holidays, from Saturday 27 June – Sunday 12 July.
School holiday entertainment will be offered at The Cool Yule Snow Pit under the Pyrmont Bridge, between Harbourside Shopping Centre and the Australian National Maritime Museum. For $7.50 per child for 20 minutes of frolicking in the snow, The Cool Yule Snow Pit will operate from Sunday – Thursday, 29 June – 3 July and 6 July – 10 July.
Strap on your skates for a school holiday boredom-buster unlike anywhere else in Sydney, with The Cool Yule Ice-Rink at Darling Harbour’s Palm Grove.
For more information, visit darlingharbour.com
Hit the Wild Bunch Trail at Taronga
The Taronga Wild Bunch Trail is on at the Zoo between 27 June – 12 July. You’ll get a kids trail map and Zoo Keeper character Danielle will help kids learn about the habitats that each of the Wild Bunch species belongs to in the wild. Plus, all kids visiting Taronga Zoo during that time will also get a Danielle the Zoo Keeper collectible!
There’s so much going on at the zoo during the holidays – so check out the fun and exciting Zoo Adventures school holiday program.
The NIDA Games: Filmmaking @ Carriageworks
What would you do to survive? Go on the ultimate screen character adventure in the NIDA Games. Using popular post-apocalyptic movies such as The Giver, Divergent and The Hunger Games as your inspiration, work with a group of young NIDA artists and a professional filmmaker to develop original characters and scene work into a short film. Then star in and receive a copy of your film!
Great fun for kids from Grades 7–10 from 6–10 July at Carriageworks
Visit nida.edu.au/winter-fun
School holiday fun at Sydney Observatory!
Treat your child to an astronomical experience at Sydney Observatory during the school holidays.
Winter’s clear skies make it one of the best times of the year for night viewing, with highlights including the Southern Cross, the red planet Mars and spectacular Saturn.
Day or night, enjoy astronomer-led telescope tours, shows in the 3-D Space Theatre and Sydney Planetarium, plus take the It’s About Time Tour and learn about time keeping with the stars and how to tell the time using the Southern Cross clock time calculator.
Visit sydneyobservatory.com.au
Join the Octonauts at SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium
These holidays kids can now experience the all new Octonauts Training Academy at SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium, where they’ll learn what it takes to become a member of the crew.
Through engaging hands-on activities across 6 zones, Octonauts cadets will master the specialities of their favourite characters.
From being a brave explorer at Kwazii’s Rockpool to taking a close-up look at the underwater world in Dr Shellington’s Research Area – the fun training assignments will bring out the Octonaut in everyone!
Visit Sydney SEA LIFE AQUARIUM for details, times, bookings and tickets.
Embrace your inner super hero at Madame Tussauds
Visitors will enjoy a heroic new experience at Madame Tussauds Sydney, with the launch of the all-new interactive Marvel Super Hero Zone, featuring the world’s most popular Super Heroes, including stars from the new Marvel movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Come face-to-face with Thor, hang out with Spider-Man, and get up close to Iron Man and Wolverine.
For more information visit madametussauds.com/sydney
Adventures at WILD LIFE Sydney Zoo
Featuring over 25 keeper talks and animal encounters, WILD LIFE Sydney Zoo is the place to visit these school holidays for up close encounters with Australia’s most loved and feared animals.
From meeting Rex, the huge 5 metre crocodile in Kakadu Gorge to cuddling up to koalas at Koala Encounters and not forgetting to bravely hold a python in Kangaroo Walk-about or to pat an unbearably cute sugar glider, there’s so much to see and do at WILD LIFE Sydney Zoo!
And with interactive displays, captivating daily feeding sessions and enhanced walk-through habitats, WILD LIFE Sydney Zoo is a fun day out for the whole family, conveniently located right in the heart of Sydney on Darling Harbour.
For more information visit WILD-LIFE.com.au
See a paper planet at The Powerhouse!
Contemporary theatre company Polyglot is transforming the Powerhouse Museum into Paper Planet, to create a world made of paper. Kids will have the chance to build whole communities of tall cardboard trees in this ongoing installation creating structures, costumes and impossible constructions.
To launch the holiday program on the weekend of Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 June, Powerhouse Museum curators will reveal the secrets behind treasures in the Museum’s collection. Marvel at the ‘mystery object’ and guess what it might be as Museum experts showcase an object not usually on display.
Visit maas.museum for bookings and details.
Cockatoo Island is great for kids!
Cockatoo Island is a great place to take the kids. It’s a place to play and a place to learn as they explore the wonders of our past. From a real convict prison to the amazing shipbuilding machines, get ready for their imaginations to run overtime with all that there is to discover on the island.
There are always different activities, like the Convict Clues Challenge or the Ship Shape Challenge.
Click for more information
School holiday fun at Sydney Tower Eye
These school holidays, the best place to see Sydney is from 250 metres above it all from the Sydney Tower Eye Observation Deck. New interactive elements throughout the attraction give guests a complete history of Sydney and its iconic tower. Measure up against other towers of the world and learn how Sydney tower is unique compared to other famous structures. Get unrivalled 360-degree views of the city from 250 metres above it all on the Observation Deck, and experience SKYWALK – Sydney’s highest outdoor adventure!
Included in admission, the 4D Experience is a ground-breaking 3D film with spectacular in-theatre effects and a breathtaking fourth dimension that gives an amazing view of the city.
Visit sydneytowereye.com.au
Take a journey through time!
From 24 to 27 June, Riverside Theatres presents Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo, a widely acclaimed show where audiences come eye to eye with creatures that roamed Australia millions of years ago.
Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo is a fun, educational and unique presentation that will delight audiences with an amazing array of large-scale puppets, from cute baby dinosaurs to some of the biggest carnivores and herbivores that ever walked the planet.
The show is on Wed June 24 6pm; Thu 25 June 10am & 12:30pm; Fri 26 June 10am & 12:30pm; Sat 27 June 10:30am and tickets are $18.
Book at the Box Office (02) 8839 3399 or riversideparramatta.com.au
See the Octopus Garden at Manly SEA LIFE Sanctuary
Enter the amazing Octopus Garden, where kids can meet an octopus and learn everything they ever wanted to know about one of the ocean’s coolest creatures!
Kids will receive an Octopus Garden activity pack that includes an octopus quiz trail and colouring-in sheet. After finishing the quiz trail and collecting their sticker, kids can get creative on our Octopus Garden activity table, and get the chance to meet and touch the resident Octopus ‘Cecil’ in the interactive touch pool.
With a whole aquarium to explore featuring one of Australia’s biggest oceanariums and over 4,000 animals, free guided tours and a hands-on interactive rockpool, Manly SEA LIFE Sanctuary offers a fun packed day for all ages!
To book tickets visit manlysealifesanctuary.com.au
Playground of activities and entertainment @ Sydney Opera House
The Australian bush comes to Sydney Opera House these school holidays with Gumnut Babies emerging from treetops in search of humans and country circus performers cartwheeling into the city from 27 June – 12 July.
The much-loved tales of the Gumnut Babies have delighted generations of children! Brothers Snugglepot and Cuddlepie are on a brave journey to see a human, joined by friends Little Ragged Blossom, Professor Kookaburra and many helpful creatures from the Australian bush. But beware the Big Bad Banksia Man!
There’s loads going on for kids during the winter school holidays, so visit Kids at the House for all the details.
Fun for kids at the Australian Museum
Check out the fantastic and fun range of school holidays activities for kids of all ages – including tiny tots – at the Australian Museum.
Delve into the depths of the ocean and discover the best-kept secrets of Australia’s waters. Would you be able to battle it out with a mantis shrimp or wage war on the Crown-of-Thorns starfish?
Check out the Australian Museum’s school holiday program
Marian Street Theatre for Young People presents Peter Pan
MSTYP, together with Knox Grammar School, is bringing the fantastic world of PETER PAN or “the boy who never grew up” to life this July. Wendy and the Darling boys journey to Neverland with Peter, Tinkerbell and the Lost Boys to find a children’s paradise, where they have exciting adventures and ultimately come face to face with the dangerous Captain Hook and his motley crew.
Visit Marian Street Theatre for Young People for more information.
Get out in the fresh air these school holidays!
CP Bush Rangers is a full day of wildlife, bushcrafts, outdoor challenges, games and free play all in the great outdoors of Centennial Parklands. All programs are led by experienced staff who specialise in introducing nature and the outdoors to children in a safe, fun and challenging environment.
Or catch your own mini beasts and watch them swimming under the microscope. Hold a hermit crab, pat a stick insect or catch your own creepy crawly at an amazing bug hunt. There’s loads going on in Centennial Parklands, so check out all the great school holiday activities.
Out of town
School holiday fun at Featherdale Wildlife Park
Featherdale Wildlife Park is celebrating its birthday this July and to mark the occasion, the Park is offering anyone born in July free entry on their birthday.
And the fun doesn’t stop there. Featherdale will also be hosting a range of special animal encounters throughout the June and July school holidays. From daily Tasmanian devil enrichment talks to farmyard feedings, the Park will have something for everyone this school break.
City kids will have the chance to meet all their farmyard favourites including baby goats, lambs and pigs. Little ones will also enjoy baby animal encounters at 2pm daily where they can get up close with a baby bilby, wallaby joey, dingo pup or wombat joey. More adventurous souls will delight in the Rapt in Reptile encounter that will see them up close and personal with all things slimy and scaly every day at 12.30pm.
Pack a picnic or sizzle up a BBQ and enjoy a great family day out – just 45 minutes from Sydney CBD!
For more information call (02) 9622 1644 or visit featherdale.com.au
Animal fun at Illawarra Fly
Kids visiting Illawarra Fly these winter school holidays will get the chance to come face-to-face with some of Australia’s most awesome animals!
Running each Saturday and Sunday across the June/July school holidays, the Australian animal showcase will give kids the chance to look at and touch different types of lizards, insects and pythons while also learning fascinating facts about these animals during keeper talks which run throughout the day. Animal encounters will run all day on June 27/28, July 4/5, and 11/12.
After learning about our awesome Australian animals, kids and adults alike can take a treetop walk and finish their day out with an amazing Zipline Tour – a perfect day out for the whole family!
Garden art for kids
The Australian Botanic Garden, Narellan Rd, Mount Annan, in the Macarthur region is just 45 mins from the Sydney CBD.
Nurture your kids with nature and bring them to this great school holiday workshop, Garden Art for Kids. Under the watchful eyes of our qualified staff, kids will head out into the garden to collect seed pods, seeds, leaves and grasses and bring them back to the workshop to create some beautiful nature art. Parents must stay during the workshop. Bookings essential.
Dates: 1 and 9 July
Cost: $16 members, $20 non-members.
Ph: 4634 7935
www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/annan
For more information call (02) 4634 7935 or visit macarthur.com.au
Yulefest at The Fairmont
Be part of Yulefest at the Fairmont Resort in the Blue Mountains and get dressed up for the Fancy Dress Parade on Saturday 4 July!
See the wonderful gathering of enthusiastic children in their fancy dress attire as they parade in all their colourful splendour – and there are great prizes to be won!
2:45pm – Kids & families to meet for the parade.
3.30pm – Fancy dress parade. Great music while parading on stage. Prizes to be won!
6pm to 8pm – A fun kids movie for everyone to enjoy.
Families must be staying at the resort to attend.
Daily activity timetable including merry-go-round rides, Fairmont Express train rides, mini-chef masterclass, and movies.
Snow Time at Hunter Valley Gardens
Snow Time in the Garden is on again these School Holidays at Hunter Valley Gardens. Bring along the whole family and enjoy a number of fabulous icy experiences in the brand new Marquee Area and Storybook Garden Play Zone.
Toboggan, ice-skate, make snowballs and have a heap of icy fun! All activities are FREE after paid Garden entry.
Visit huntervalleygardens.com.au
Light up winter in Bathurst!
From 4-12 July, Bathurst will come alive with the Illuminate Bathurst Winter Festival.
For the first time, Bathurst will host an open-air ice rink in Kings Parade. The city centre will be transformed for the festival on Saturday 4 July.
The ice rink opens from Saturday 4 – Sunday 12 July. Skating sessions start on the hour for a 45 minutes session from 10am.
Ticket Price: $5 Penguin Skating Aid: $5
Click for more information