Taronga Western Plains Zoo turned away three busloads of tourists that turned up from Sydney in breach of New South Wales public health orders earlier this week.
One hundred and twenty-eight staff and guests arrived at the zoo in Dubbo, in the state's in Central West, on Monday morning after setting off from Sydney last Friday.
Taronga Western Plains Zoo director Steve Hinks said staff refused entry to the groups and asked them to remain on the buses while police were notified.
"We have very stringent COVID safety protocols in place here," Mr Hinks said.
"All correspondence with the company gave us the confidence that this group was fine to travel throughout regional NSW — of course, on arrival that turned out not to be the case."
Officers from the Orana Mid-Western Police District spoke with the tour operators and discovered at least 76 passengers were not permitted to travel outside Greater Sydney.
On Saturday, public health orders were extended to July 9 for all of Greater Sydney, including the Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Wollongong.
NSW Police State Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys said the owner of the tour company was aware of the updated public health orders but chose to continue the tour as planned.
"The staff at the zoo did exactly the right thing — they isolated the risk and alerted police," Deputy Commissioner Worboys said.
The tour company has been issued a $5,000 provisional improvement notice.
Investigations into further possible breaches are ongoing.
