The Garigal National Park is a

protected Protection is any measure taken to guard a thing against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although th ...

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

that is located within the North Shore and Forest District regions of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, in eastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The national park is situated approximately north of the

Sydney central business district The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main Central business district, commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or c ...

. Split into three distinct sections, divided by natural geography, urban development and road infrastructure, the park comprises the valley of

Middle Harbour Creek Middle Harbour Creek, a tributary of Middle Harbour, is a youthful tide-dominated, drowned-valley estuary northwest of Sydney Harbour, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Ecology Formed by the confluence of Bare Creek and Frenchs Creek, no ...

and its tributaries, the slopes along the northern side of

Middle Harbour Middle Harbour (or ''Warrin ga''), a semi–mature tide dominated drowned valley estuary, is the northern arm of Port Jackson, an inlet of the Tasman Sea located north of Sydney central business district on the coast of New South Wales, Austr ...

as far as and part of the catchment of Narrabeen Lakes. The park

trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. Th ...

s are popular with bushwalkers and mountain bike riders, particularly between and in an area known as Cascades after the Cascades Track that runs through the area. There are over 35 trails in the park covering 120km, including both authorised bushwalking and mountain-biking trails, and unofficial or unsanctioned tracks.

Etymology and indigenous heritage

The word ''Garigal'' is a derivation of the word ''Carigal'' or ''Caregal'' used to describe the

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

people who lived in Guringai country, translated in modern English as

Ku-ring-gai Kuringgai (also spelled Ku-ring-gai, Kuring-gai, Guringai, Kuriggai) (,) is an ethnonym referring to (a) an hypothesis regarding an aggregation of Indigenous Australian peoples occupying the territory between the southern borders of the Gamilar ...

. The Guringai people are the traditional custodians of the land now reserved as the Garigal National Park and there is considerable evidence of past Aboriginal activity in the area, with over 100 Aboriginal sites recorded to date, including shelters, cave art, rock engravings, middens, grinding grooves and a possible stone arrangement.

Location

Much of the park is bounded by residential development along the ridge tops and it is easily accessible at numerous points by road and water. Several other conservation reserves and areas of bushland are adjacent or close by the Garigal National Park, including the

Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is a national park on the northern side of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. The park is north of the Sydney central business district and generally comprises the land east of the M1 Pacific Motorway, sout ...

, the Sydney Harbour National Park, the Manly Warringah War Memorial Park (commonly known as the

Manly Dam Reserve The Manly Dam Reserve, also known as the Manly Warringah War Memorial Park, is an urban bushland reserve located in the Northern Beaches region of Sydney, Australia. The reserve adjoins the south-eastern edge of Garigal National Park. Located ...

) and a number of areas of Crown land and other reserves in

Northern Beaches The Northern Beaches is a region within Northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, near the Pacific coast. This area extends south to the entrance of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), west to Middle Harbour and north to the entra ...

and Willoughby

local government areas A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a state, province, division, or territory. The phrase i ...

. The national park is defined by the following boundaries * In the northeastern sectorTo the south of both the

Mona Vale Road The A3 is a major metropolitan arterial route in Sydney, formerly designated Metroad 3. The A3 runs from its intersection with the A8 at Mona Vale at the north end, to the southerly of its two intersections with the A1, Princes Highway, a ...

and the Waste Management Centre; as far east as , and the Narrabeen Lakes. * In the southwestern sectorAlong Middle Harbour and Middle Harbour Creek and bounded to the west by , , , , Belrose; bounded to the east by , , ; as far north as Mona Vale Road where it abuts the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. * In the southeastern sectorSurrounding Bantry Bay between Killarney Heights and Forestville to the west; and Wakehurst Parkway and the Manly Dam Reserve to the east.

Features

Fauna

A ''Dry

Sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct ...

Forest'', Garigal National Park is home to a wide range of fauna, including birds, snakes and a wide range of native mammals (such as

bandicoot Bandicoots are a group of more than 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial, largely nocturnal marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia. They are endemic to the Australia–New Guinea region, including the Bismarck Archipelago t ...

koala The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the womb ...

wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...

). There is also a number of introduced pests, including rabbits and foxes.

Gallery

Blandfordia grandiflora Garigal11426428975 e73f7b0aa9 o.jpg, ''

Blandfordia grandiflora ''Blandfordia grandiflora'', commonly known as Christmas bells, is a flowering plant endemic to eastern Australia. It is a tufted perennial herb with narrow, channelled, linear leaves and between two and twenty large, drooping, bell-shaped flo ...

'' Ceratopetalum gummiferum Garigal.jpg, ''

Ceratopetalum gummiferum ''Ceratopetalum gummiferum'', the New South Wales Christmas bush, is a tall shrub or small tree popular in Plant cultivation, cultivation due to its sepals that turn bright red-pink at around Christmas time. The petals are actually small and whi ...

'' Garigal Petrophile pulchella26183362174 3bd44f4f12 o.jpg, ''

Petrophile pulchella ''Petrophile pulchella'', commonly known as conesticks, is a common shrub of the family Proteaceae and is found in eastern Australia. The leaves are divided with needle-shaped but soft pinnae, the flowers silky-hairy, cream-coloured and arrange ...

'' AT DSC 2504 (16931962708).jpg, ''

Acacia terminalis ''Acacia terminalis'' (sunshine wattle) is a shrub or small tree to 6 m in height. It is an Australian native whose range extends through New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. Four subspecies have been recognised, although there are additio ...

'' Gleichenia dicarpa Garigal 6516385400 6707dda935 o.jpg, ''

Gleichenia dicarpa ''Gleichenia dicarpa'', commonly known as pouched coral fern or tangle fern, is a small fern of the family Gleicheniaceae found in eastern Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand. It forms tangled thickets in wet places such as swamps and rive ...

'' Lomatia myricoides IMG 5949.JPG (12148109653).jpg, ''

Lomatia myricoides ''Lomatia myricoides'' , commonly known as the river lomatia, is a shrub native to New South Wales and Victoria in southeastern Australia. Description ''Lomatia myricoides'' grows as a woody shrub or small tree, reaching high, or rarely up to ...

References

External links

* * * * * * Walking tracks, MTB trails and swimming holes in Garigal National Park * * {{authority control National parks of New South Wales Protected areas established in 1991 1991 establishments in Australia Urban forests Parks in Sydney St Ives, New South Wales