The Australian Reptile Park is owned by four Owner & Directors: John Weigel, Robyn Weigel, Tim Faulkner, and Liz Gabriel. John and Robyn Weigel are the longest-tenured owners, having taken over the park after founder Eric Worrell died in 1987, while Tim Faulkner and Liz Gabriel joined later as co-owners and directors. The park is not, and has never been, owned solely by “the Faulkner family.”
That correction matters because a lot of pages online (including an earlier version of this one) shorthand the ownership as just “the Faulkners.” Tim Faulkner is a genuine co-owner and one of the park’s most visible public faces, but he shares ownership and director duties with John Weigel, Robyn Weigel, and Liz Gabriel. Here’s how that ownership group came together, and what each person does at the park today.
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Who are the current owners of the Australian Reptile Park?
According to the park’s own team page, there are four Owner & Directors:
- John Weigel — Owner & Director. Took over the park with his wife Robyn after Eric Worrell’s death in 1987 and has run it for close to four decades.
- Robyn Weigel — Owner & Director. John’s co-owner and wife; together they rebuilt the park after a fire destroyed the main building in 2000.
- Tim Faulkner — Owner & Director. A wildlife conservationist and TV personality who also runs the Tasmanian devil conservation program Aussie Ark.
- Liz Gabriel — Owner & Director. Joined the park as a volunteer in 2002 and now oversees its venom program and Tasmanian devil breeding program.
Tim Faulkner remains the park’s most publicly recognizable figure, fronting most of its media appearances and TV segments, but ownership and director responsibilities are shared across all four.
How did the Weigels come to own the park?
The park’s roots go back further than most visitors realize. Herpetologist Eric Worrell opened his first venture, the Ocean Beach Aquarium at Umina Beach, in 1948. From 1951 he began supplying tiger snake venom to CSL for antivenom production, the beginning of the park’s decades-long role in Australia’s antivenom supply chain. Worrell opened the Australian Reptile Park itself, at Wyoming on the NSW Central Coast, in 1958.
Worrell ran the park until he died in 1987. John and Robyn Weigel took over ownership from there. They moved the park to its current Somersby site in 1996, then rebuilt it almost from scratch after a fire destroyed the main reptile building on 17 July 2000; the park reopened on 8 April 2002. Tim Faulkner and Liz Gabriel joined as co-owners and directors in the years that followed, expanding the park’s conservation and breeding programs.
| Detail | Fact |
|---|---|
| Founded (as the Australian Reptile Park) | 1958, at Wyoming, NSW, by Eric Worrell |
| Current owners | John Weigel, Robyn Weigel, Tim Faulkner, Liz Gabriel |
| Current location | Pacific Highway, Somersby, NSW 2250 (since 1996) |
| Known for | Australia’s sole supplier of raw snake and funnel-web spider venom for antivenom |
Why is the Australian Reptile Park important for antivenom?
The Australian Reptile Park is the sole supplier of raw venom used to manufacture Australia’s terrestrial snake antivenoms, produced by CSL Seqirus. It also runs a Sydney funnel-web spider milking program: members of the public in NSW and the ACT can hand in live funnel-web spiders at approved drop-off points, and the park milks their venom to help produce funnel-web antivenom. This work is a big part of why the ownership group treats the park as a conservation and public-health facility first, and a tourist attraction second.
Who is Tim Faulkner and what does he do today?
Tim Faulkner is a wildlife conservationist, TV presenter, and one of the park’s four Owner & Directors. Outside the park, he founded and runs Aussie Ark, a dedicated Tasmanian devil conservation program, and has presented wildlife TV segments including Bondi Vet and The Wild Life of Tim Faulkner. In 2015 he was named Australian Geographic‘s Conservationist of the Year. At the park, he’s most visible in the venom-milking demonstrations and crocodile shows that make up much of the daily visitor program.
What happened to Eric the crocodile?
Eric was one of the park’s best-known saltwater crocodiles, born in 1947 in the Northern Territory. He died in late June 2007, at roughly 60 years old, after a severe storm cut power to his heated enclosure, and the cold snap worsened an age-related infection he was already fighting. He’s buried at the park, and staff at the time described him as “much more than just a crocodile,” a long-time favorite with visitors across Australia.
Visiting the Australian Reptile Park
The park is on the Pacific Highway at Somersby, NSW 2250, about an hour’s drive north of Sydney on the Central Coast. It’s open daily except Christmas Day, and family day passes start from around AUD $36, though pricing changes periodically, so check the official Australian Reptile Park website for current hours and ticket prices before you go. If you’re weighing this up against other Central Coast or day-trip options, our guides to day trips from Sydney and weekend getaways from Sydney cover how it stacks up, and our guide to Australia’s wildlife sanctuaries compares it with other parks. For more on the park’s age and founding date, see our companion page on how old the Australian Reptile Park is.
You can also book tickets through third-party platforms such as GetYourGuide, which often bundles entry with transport from Sydney.
Sources: Australian Reptile Park official site (team and history pages), Australian Dictionary of Biography — Eric Worrell. Last verified and updated 29 July 2026.
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