The Southern Tablelands is rich with rustic country attractions and the Taralga Wildlife Park is quickly becoming one of the major draw cards near Goulburn.

Autumn gives the country roads around Taralga in southern NSW a colour palette of browns, yellows and amber gold as Lombardy Poplar trees shed their leaves.

The road leading from Goulburn to the Taralga Wildlife Park and the Wombeyan Caves, both on our schedule for this weekend road trip from Sydney, is sporadically lined with the tall yellow trees. It feels like the quaint English countryside for a moment before the hardy and gnarly gums take their rightful spot on the horizon.

Our first stop was the Taralga Wildlife Park just five minutes from the township.

Moments after paying the reasonable admission of $25 per adult, the smiling staff at the zoo will thrust an ice cream cone into your hands. It’s not laden with sweet dairy, but a dry concoction of hay, straw and animal feed pellets. This is going to be a hands-on experience.

Set on four hectares, the wildlife park has grown quickly from its early incarnation as a bird sanctuary when it opened in 2019.

If the staff at the entrance kiosk are the warm up act, a pair of donkeys just inside the secure gates of the park are the comedy show. It’s as if they’ve worked out they’re the first animal that nervous children — with cones full of feed — will come across. They bray and ‘ee-aw’ delightedly as the kids accidentally sacrifice the supply that was meant to last all day.

The lawns, gardens, and timber fencing are well maintained. It bodes well for the animals which are housed in seemingly clean, large and shady pens.

In mid 2024 a Chinese tourist visited the park and queued for the chance to nurse a wombat. It’s an animal experience offered at Taralga, not dissimilar to animal experiences at zoos around Australia. The difference this time was the guest; a hugely popular influencer on Chinese social media.

The influencer took photos and video of the experience holding Karl the wombat. The zoo claims the visitor garnered more than 60,000 views before she left the park. The wombat experience then went viral on TikTok too.

Twice a day, a wombat is brought out to graze in the grass under a tree. If it’s relaxed, it’s lifted and offered to guests to hold for a short moment– long enough to get a photograph. When and if the wombat becomes restless, the experience stops or the wombat is swapped out. It’s a relatively simple offering and Taralga Wildlife Park doesn’t currently charge extra for it.

At the same time bus loads of international tourists began descending on Taralga, some animal welfare critics were raising objections — again on social media. The Taralga Wildlife Park knows the pros and pitfalls of going viral.

The park dismisses claims the animals are mistreated. There are several wombats on location which were hand-raised at the zoo. If the animal’s not up for being held on a particular day, the experience is cancelled. The hug is free but it isn’t guaranteed.

Holding a wombat won’t be for everyone. And if it’s not for you, there’s still a full day of engaging animals to see here.

The curious emus, behind a low fence, were eagerly approaching guests. Their beaks poke over it, probably on the hunt for those cones of feed.

Camels, kangaroos, and more than 700 birds are on display. Several goats wandered the grounds.

By early afternoon, we were ready for some down time. We booked a cabin with Tiny Away rentals at the Lexington Horse Farm in Tarlo. Tiny homes, as an accommodation concept, can be hit or miss. Our cabin this weekend was both: the location, looking west over the horse paddocks and setting sun was heavenly. The downside was losing power when the generator that supplies two cabins on the property failed.

We had an open fire and the stars over our heads so we were determined to make the most of it. The cabin was warm and the darkness of the moonless night made for a deep and restful a sleep.

Ryan and Jaimee, our hosts raced up freshly brewed coffee in the morning and rigged up some temporary power so we could have a hot shower.

Then we were out, past the Poplar Trees again and heading north to Wombeyan Caves. There are several kilometers of dirt road before you arrive at the caves but it’s in good condition for a two-wheel drive.

The caves complex benefited from a $10 Million refurbishment in 2024. The campground facilities, picnic areas and information centre are new. The caves themselves, on the other hand, are more than two million years old. They have another claim to fame: in 1865 they became the first caves in Australia subject to a preservation order.

Norm was our NSW Parks guide in the Wollondilly Cave which is one of only four caves available for public tours. Norm shared valuable history about the European discovery of the Caves in 1828 and important context about the marble rock and limestone that forms the cave walls.

Expect some steep stairs and tight spaces as you make your way nearly a kilometer under the ground. The stalactites and stalagmites were exquisite– grand crystal columns formed over hundreds of thousands of years by chemical reactions in tiny drops of water.

In some freak of nature, trickling water has created wavey sheets of thin stone that now look like giant slices of bacon. Children on the tour giggled as Norm pointed to a giant stone structure that looked like ice cream in a cone.

Ice cream cones but still no dairy to be seen.

As the tour emerged from from the dark of the Wollondilly Cave into the bright sun an hour and half later, a hush lingered with the group. We’d returned from a trip into ancient history. I was awe struck. Wombeyan caves reminds you of your small place in the big history of all things.

As we drove north back to Sydney, the idea of time flying had so much more meaning.