Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is a

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 ...

on the northern side 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 ...

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 park is 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 ...

and generally comprises the land east of the M1 Pacific Motorway, south of the

Hawkesbury River The Hawkesbury River, or Hawkesbury-Nepean River, is a river located northwest of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Hawkesbury River and its associated main tributary, the Nepean River, almost encircle the metropolitan region of Sydney. ...

, west of

Pittwater Pittwater is a semi-mature tide dominated drowned valley estuary, located about north of the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia; being one of the bodies of water that separate greater Metropolitan Sydney from the Ce ...

and north of

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 ...

. It includes Barrenjoey Headland on the eastern side of Pittwater. Ku-ring-gai Chase is a popular tourist destination, known for its scenic setting on the Hawkesbury River and Pittwater, significant plant and animal communities, Aboriginal sites and European historic places. Picnic, boating, and fishing facilities can be found throughout the park. There are many walking tracks in Ku-ring-gai Chase. The villages of Cottage Point, Appletree Bay, Elvina Bay,

Lovett Bay Lovett Bay is a suburb and adjacent bay in northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 36 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Northern Beaches Council. Lovett Bay is i ...

Coasters Retreat Coasters Retreat is an offshore suburb in northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, 42 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Northern Beaches Council. Location Coaste ...

Great Mackerel Beach Great Mackerel Beach is a suburb about 43 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, from 2016 in the local government area of Northern Beaches Council, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, formerly part of Pittwater Council. I ...

and Bobbin Head are located within the park boundaries. The park was declared in 1894, and is the third oldest national park in Australia. The park is managed by the

NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is a directorate of the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment responsible for managing most of the protected areas in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Despite its name the ...

and was added to the

Australian National Heritage List The Australian National Heritage List or National Heritage List (NHL) is a heritage register, a list of national heritage places deemed to be of outstanding heritage significance to Australia, established in 2003. The list includes natural and ...

in December 2006. The park gets its name from the Guringai Aboriginal people who were long thought to be the traditional owners of the area. However, more contemporary research suggests that this was not the case.

Geology

Ku-ring-gai Chase is part of the

Hornsby Plateau The Hornsby Plateau is a dissected sandstone plateau lying to the north of Sydney Harbour that rises 200 metres. The plateau is a part of the larger Sydney Basin structure. Geography The North Shore and the Berowra Valley National Park are locat ...

, a massive block of sandstone tilting upwards to the north. The park comprises a plateau with an elevation of generally 150–200 m above sea level. Between 250 and 200 million years ago, sand silt and mud was deposited by rivers across flood plains. These formed the

shales Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especiall ...

, flagstones and sandstones of the

Narrabeen Group The Narrabeen group of sedimentary rocks occurs in the Sydney Basin in eastern Australia. This series of rocks was formed in the Triassic Period. Geology It includes various rock types including lithic sandstone, quartz sandstone, siltstones, ...

that outcrop along the foreshores and ridges. Higher areas of the park are underlain with pink, white and orange layers of

Hawkesbury Sandstone Sydney sandstone is the common name for Sydney Basin Hawkesbury Sandstone, one variety of which is historically known as Yellowblock, and also as "yellow gold" a sedimentary rock named after the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney, where this ...

that contain small beds of shale. Wianamatta Group shale is present in the higher points of the park. The park's terraced landscape is due to the horizontal arrangement of these sediment layers. Other rock types in the park are less common. Soils derived from the

Narrabeen group The Narrabeen group of sedimentary rocks occurs in the Sydney Basin in eastern Australia. This series of rocks was formed in the Triassic Period. Geology It includes various rock types including lithic sandstone, quartz sandstone, siltstones, ...

of shales are around the eastern shore of the Lambert Peninsula, particularly around Elvina Bay and

. These richer soils provide for a vegetation type different from that of the sandy ridge top soils, providing for forests of spotted gums (

Corymbia maculata ''Corymbia maculata'', commonly known as spotted gum, is a species of medium-sized to tall tree that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has smooth, mottled bark, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds usually in groups of three, whit ...

) with forest oaks as a secondary layer. Eroded remnants of volcanic dykes occur including at Resolution Picnic Area at West Head and Campbells Crater near

Cowan Cowan or Cowans may refer to: Places Australia * Cowan, New South Wales * Cowan Creek, a waterway to the north of Sydney, Australia * Division of Cowan, a federal division of the Australian House of Representatives, in Western Australia * Hundr ...

, which provide for forests of Sydney blue gum (

Eucalyptus saligna ''Eucalyptus saligna'', commonly known as the Sydney blue gum or blue gum, is a species of medium-sized to tall tree that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has rough, flaky bark near the base of the trunk, smooth bark above, lance-shaped to c ...

). More recent volcanic activity has forced small intrusions of igneous rock into the sandstone. A band of

dolerite Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro, is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grain ...

runs across the West Head peninsula near White Horse Beach, providing fertile soils for a distance group of plants. The Smith's Creek area has intrusions of

breccia Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of di ...

. The plateau is divided into separate sections by the steep valleys of

Cowan Creek Cowan Creek is located in New South Wales, Australia. It is a tidal subcatchment of the Hawkesbury River. Almost all of the catchment lies within Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is a national park on the north ...

Coal and Candle Creek Coal and Candle Creek is a creek located in Sydney, Australia. It is a tributary of Cowan Creek which flows into the Hawkesbury River. See also *Cottage Point, New South Wales Cottage Point is a suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New ...

, and Smiths Creek. These "flooded" or "drowned" valleys, knowns as

ria A ria (; gl, ría) is a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley. It is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea. Definitions Typically rias have a dendritic, treelike outline although they ca ...

s, were eroded into the sandstone much deeper than the current sea level during the glacial phases of the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

ice age. When the ice caps melted about 10,000 years ago, the sea levels rose and flooded the valleys of the park, and separated

Lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

islands from the mainland. The tributaries of Pittwater and Cowan Creek became bays and inlets along and extended shoreline. The dominant rock type is

which determines the topography and the vegetation in the sandy soils. Sandstone cliffs, rocky and outcrops, and worn caves are common throughout the park. Indigenous people engraved the flat sandstone outcrops.

Tessellated pavement In geology and geomorphology, a tessellated pavement is a relatively flat rock surface that is subdivided into more or less regular rectangles, blocks approaching rectangles, or irregular or regular polygons by fractures, frequently systematic jo ...

s are found in the park whereby regular chequered patterns in the stone form along fault lines and lines of weakness. The park's highest point is 246 m at Willunga Trig near West Head Road which runs along the ridge of the Lambert Peninsula.

History

Pre-European history

The name

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 ...

(also spelled Kuringgai, Kuring-gai, Guringai, Kuriggai) () is an

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

referring to (a) an hypothesis regarding an aggregation of

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

peoples occupying the territory between the southern borders of the

Gamilaraay The Gamilaraay, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous nations in Aust ...

and the area around Sydney (b) perhaps an historical people with its own distinctive language, located in part of that territory, or (c) people of Aboriginal origin who identify themselves as descending from the original peoples denoted by (a) or (b) and who call themselves Guringai. Little about the original inhabitants was recorded by Europeans at contact and their communities were soon destroyed through disease and conflict with European settlers.Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park
Department of Planning, Industry & Environment The national park contains extensive evidence of Aboriginal occupation of the area prior to European contact, across more than 800 sites in the park. These include rock engravings, cave drawings, occupation sites, paintings and stencils, axe grinding grooves and middens providing significant evidence of the way of life of the Guringai people.

Park history

In 1788, the first year of English settlement of the Sydney area, Governor Phillip and a small party explored Borken Bay and the Hawkesbury River, but seeking agricultural land, they showed little interest in the steep and stony landscapes. It was previously underdeveloped by early settlers due to poor accessibility and low soil fertility, except for some of the more fertile ridgetops. The area's Sydney Blue Gum, Blackbutt,

Turpentine Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthene, terebinthine and (colloquially) turps) is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Mainly used as a special ...

, and

Coachwood ''Ceratopetalum apetalum'', the coachwood, scented satinwood or tarwood, is a medium-sized hardwood tree, straight-growing with smooth, fragrant, greyish bark. It is native to eastern Australia in the central and northern coastal rainforests of ...

was extracted in small quantities, but Red Cedar was heavily extracted. Sawmills were established in the 1830s, including at the upper reaches of Cowan Creek where Duffy's Wharf was built to transport logs. The Pacific Highway and

Main Northern railway line The Main North Line (also known as the Great Northern Railway) is a major railway in New South Wales, Australia. It runs through the Central Coast, Hunter and New England regions. The line was the original main line between Sydney and Brisban ...

built along the ridgetop forming the park's current western border provided access to Cowan Creek along which pioneers settled. 40 hectares at Gerard Point, now Church Point, were granted to James Terry of

Gordon Gordon may refer to: People * Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters * Gordon (surname), the surname * Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War * Clan Gordon, ...

. Following almost 40 years of lobbying from a local citizen, Eccleston Du Faur, to establish a "National Park for North Sydney", approximately 13,500 hectares, including not only land areas but also most of Cowan Water, was set aside in 1894 as Ku-ring-gai Chase as a conservation area, and placed under the care, control and management of trustees. Du Faur was a surveyor and engineer by profession, and his interests included science, exploration, natural history and the arts. Upon the gazetting of the gazetting of the park, du Faur was appointed Managing Trustee and during his 10-year tenure, he developed walking trails and a road to Bobbin Head, which is now a fire trail. Bobbin Head Inn, picnic shelters, and boat shed concessions were established to raise much needed funds for park management. Picnic areas were created with the reclamation of mud flats at Appletree Bay, Bobbin Head, Illawong Bay, and Akuna Bay between 1910 and 1940. The area around West Head had been held privately until it was added to the park in 1951. In 1918, owners of a 640 hectare lot in Commodore Heights lobbied for a road to be pushed through from the south. A 1927 prospectus proposed a community of 2,500 residences with a country club, casino, golf course, and hotel, however, the plans did not eventuate due to the Depression. Ku-ring-gai Chase became a national park with the proclamation of the National Parks and Wildlife Act in 1967. It is the third oldest national park in Australia, with the

Royal National Park The Royal National Park is a protected national park that is located in Sutherland Shire in the Australian state of New South Wales, just south of Sydney. The national park is about south of the Sydney central business district near the local ...

being the oldest. Additions to the park have made it 14,882 hectares in size. The park is managed by the

and was added to the

in December 2006. The term "chase" indicates it was an area of natural bush not enclosed by fences. Ku-ring-gai Chase is also officially classed as a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

by the

Geographical Names Board of New South Wales The Geographical Names Board of New South Wales, a statutory authority of the Department of Customer Service in the Government of New South Wales, is the official body for naming and recording details of places and geographical names in the s ...

. The television series, '' Skippy the Bush Kangaroo'' was shot in northern Sydney at Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and the adjacent

Waratah Park Waratah Park is a heritage-listed former Aboriginal land and fauna sanctuary and now Aboriginal title claim at 13 Namba Road, Duffys Forest in the Northern Beaches Council local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It is also know ...

. Bushfires ravaged the park in January 1994. A

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...

on its way to

Sydney Harbour Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (p ...

crashed into Jerusalem Bay shortly after takeoff from on 31 December 2017, killing the pilot and five passengers.

Locations, access and facilities

Many of the park's attractions are accessible only by walking track. Many kilometres of the park front the shores of

Broken Bay Broken Bay, a semi-mature tide-dominated drowned valley estuary, is a large inlet of the Tasman Sea located about north of Sydney central business district on the coast of New South Wales, Australia; being one of the bodies of water that separa ...

and

, making it a good place to explore by boat. Railway stations are at Mount Colah, Mount Kuring-gai, Berowra and

. All roads in the area are sealed and all have collection gates where a daily fee is payable. * Bobbin Head is located on Cowan Creek and facilities include a marina, picnic areas, a small store, and a lunch-time restaurant in what used to be the Bobbin Head Inn, which also contains an information centre. The area contains many fire trails and a walk through mangroves. Aboriginal engravings can be seen in the area. *Appletree Bay is a picnic area with a boat ramp and jetty, toilets, picnic tables and barbecues. *The Basin is a lagoon with a beach on the west side of Pittwater. It has picnic areas and is the only location in the national park where camping is permitted. Access is either by West Head Road via The Basin Track or on a ferry from Palm Beach Wharf. * West Head is a headland at the north eastern tip of the National Park. A lookout, with views of Barrenjoey, Palm Beach and Broken Bay, has been built on West Head.Gregory's Street Directory, 59th Edition 1995, Map 109 The Flint & Steel Guesthouse was one of the first buildings on West Head. * Barrenjoey headland is at the northern end of Palm Beach and is not joined to the rest of the Park by land but separated by 1 kilometre of water, the Pittwater. It is the site the historic Barrenjoey Head Lighthouse, constructed in 1880. *The Sphinx Memorial is a sandstone monument commemorating the fallen Australian Imperial Force comrades of

William Shirley William Shirley (2 December 1694 – 24 March 1771) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the governor of the British American colonies of Massachusetts Bay and the Bahamas. He is best known for his role in organi ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and was created by the returned soldier in the 1920s. The Sphinx took about one and a half years to complete. *Cottage Point is Sydney's smallest locality and is listed as a heritage conservation area. Cottage Point Kiosk and Boat Hire, built around 1918, is situated at Cottage Point at the entrance to Coal and Candle Creek. * Jerusalem Bay is accessible by a track which is part of the

Great North Walk The Great North Walk is a walking track which runs from Sydney to Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia. The main track, in length, runs between the Obelisk in Macquarie Place in Sydney to Queens Wharf in Bicentennial Park in Newcastle and ...

from Cowan railway station next to the Pacific Highway. The track passes through a creek gorge lined with

temperate rainforest Temperate rainforests are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rain. Temperate rain forests occur in oceanic moist regions around the world: the Pacific temperate rain forests of North American ...

and large turpentines before opening to the bay. At the bay is an old abandoned habitation site. It opens out to Cowan Water and Broken Bay making it popular with boating and fishing enthusiasts. After the bay the track proceeds up a steep climb past Campbell's Crater and along the ridge to Brooklyn. Campbell's Crater is a volcanic diatreme containing

subtropical rainforest Laurel forest, also called laurisilva or laurissilva, is a type of subtropical forest found in areas with high humidity and relatively stable, mild temperatures. The forest is characterized by broadleaf tree species with evergreen, glossy and elo ...

species such as Red Cedars and Cabbage Palms with a floor of ferns.

References

External links

* *, Hiking the World * History of Commodore Heights ite of West Head Lookout

CC-By-SA A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright license A public license or public copyright licenses is a license by which a copyright holder as licensor can grant additional copyright permissions to any and all pers ...

] . *

] . {{DEFAULTSORT:Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park National parks of New South Wales Protected areas established in 1967 Rock art in Australia [ ategory:Australian National Heritage List 1894 establishments in Australia Hawkesbury River Hornsby Shire Asquith, New South Wales