Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is a national park located on the northern side of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. The park covers an area of 14,977 hectares (37,010 acres) and is 25 kilometers (16 miles) north of the Sydney central business district. It is generally found east of the M1 Pacific Motorway, south of the Hawkesbury River, west of Pittwater, and north of Mona Vale Road. The park includes Barrenjoey Headland on the eastern side of Pittwater.

Ku-ring-gai Chase is a popular place for tourists. It is known for its beautiful views of the Hawkesbury River and Pittwater, its diverse plant and animal life, and its Aboriginal and European historical sites. The park has picnic areas, boating and fishing facilities, and many walking trails. Villages such as Cottage Point, Appletree Bay, Elvina Bay, Lovett Bay, Coasters Retreat, Great Mackerel Beach, and Bobbin Head are located within the park’s boundaries.

The park was established in 1894 and is the third oldest national park in Australia. It is managed by the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service and was added to the Australian National Heritage List in December 2006.

The park’s name comes from the Guringai Aboriginal people, who were once believed to be the traditional owners of the area. However, more recent research suggests this may not be accurate.

Geology

Ku-ring-gai Chase is part of the Hornsby Plateau, a large area of sandstone that slopes upward to the north. The park is a plateau with an elevation of about 150–200 meters above sea level. Between 250 and 200 million years ago, rivers carried sand, silt, and mud across floodplains. These materials formed the shales, flagstones, and sandstones of the Narrabeen Group, which are visible along the park’s foreshores and ridges. Higher areas of the park have pink, white, and orange layers of Hawkesbury Sandstone, which contain thin layers of shale. Wianamatta Group shale is found in the highest parts of the park. The park’s terraced landscape is caused by the horizontal layers of these sedimentary rocks.

Other rock types in the park are less common. Soils formed from the Narrabeen Group shales are found near the eastern shore of the Lambert Peninsula, especially around Elvina Bay and Lovett Bay. These richer soils support a different type of vegetation compared to the sandy ridge top soils, including forests of spotted gums (Corymbia maculata) with forest oaks as a secondary layer. Eroded remnants of volcanic dykes are present, such as at Resolution Picnic Area near West Head and Campbells Crater near Cowan, which support forests of Sydney blue gum (Eucalyptus saligna).

Recent volcanic activity caused small intrusions of igneous rock into the sandstone. A band of dolerite runs across the West Head peninsula near White Horse Beach, creating fertile soil for a unique group of plants. The Smith’s Creek area has intrusions of breccia.

The plateau is divided into separate sections by the steep valleys of Cowan Creek, Coal and Candle Creek, and Smiths Creek. These valleys, called rias, were eroded much deeper into the sandstone during the glacial periods of the Pleistocene ice age. When ice caps melted about 10,000 years ago, rising sea levels flooded the valleys, separating Lion and Scotland islands from the mainland. Tributaries of Pittwater and Cowan Creek became bays and inlets along an extended shoreline.

Hawkesbury Sandstone is the main rock type in the park, shaping the landscape and the vegetation in the sandy soils. Sandstone cliffs, rocky outcrops, and worn caves are common throughout the park.

Indigenous people carved images into flat sandstone outcrops.

Tessellated pavements are found in the park, where regular, checkered patterns in the stone form along fault lines and weak areas.

The park’s highest point is 246 meters at Willunga Trig near West Head Road, which runs along the ridge of the Lambert Peninsula.

History

The name Ku-ring-gai (also spelled Kuringgai, Kuring-gai, Guringai, Kuriggai) is a term used to describe (a) a theory about a group of Indigenous Australian people who lived between the southern edge of the Gamilaraay area and the region near Sydney (b) possibly a group of people with their own language who lived in part of that area, or (c) people of Aboriginal origin who claim to be descendants of those groups and call themselves Guringai.

Little was written about the original people living in the area when Europeans arrived, and their communities were destroyed by disease and conflicts with European settlers.

The national park has many signs showing Aboriginal people lived there before Europeans arrived, across more than 800 sites. These include rock carvings, cave paintings, places where people lived, artwork, tools for shaping axes, and middens (areas where waste was left), which show how the Guringai people lived.

In 1788, the first year of English settlement in Sydney, Governor Arthur Phillip and a small group explored Broken Bay and the Hawkesbury River. However, they were more interested in finding farmland and paid little attention to the rocky and difficult-to-farm land.

The area was not developed much by early settlers because it was hard to reach and had poor soil, except for some fertile hills. Trees like Sydney blue gum, blackbutt, turpentine, and coachwood were cut in small amounts, but red cedar was heavily harvested. Sawmills were built in the 1830s, including at Cowan Creek, where a wharf was built to move logs.

The Pacific Highway and Main Northern railway line, built along the hills forming the park’s western edge, gave access to Cowan Creek, where early settlers lived. In 1894, 40 hectares at Gerard Point (now Church Point) were given to James Terry of Gordon.

After almost 40 years of efforts by Eccleston Du Faur, a local citizen who wanted to create a "National Park for North Sydney," 13,500 hectares, including much of Cowan Water, was set aside as Ku-ring-gai Chase in 1894 as a conservation area. Du Faur, a surveyor and engineer, was appointed Managing Trustee and helped build walking trails and a road to Bobbin Head.

Bobbin Head Inn, picnic shelters, and boat shed concessions were created to raise money for park management. Mud flats at Appletree Bay, Bobbin Head, Illawong Bay, and Akuna Bay were turned into picnic areas between 1910 and 1940.

The area around West Head was privately owned until it was added to the park in 1951. In 1918, owners of a 640-hectare area in Commodore Heights asked for a road to be built from the south. A 1927 plan proposed a community of 2,500 homes, a country club, casino, golf course, and hotel, but these plans did not happen because of the Great Depression.

Ku-ring-gai Chase became a national park in 1967 with the National Parks and Wildlife Act. It is the third oldest national park in Australia, after the Royal National Park. The park now covers 14,882 hectares and is managed by the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service. It was added to the Australian National Heritage List in 2006. The word "chase" means it was a natural area not enclosed by fences. Ku-ring-gai Chase is also officially listed as a suburb by the Geographical Names Board of New South Wales.

The television show Skippy the Bush Kangaroo was filmed in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and the nearby Waratah Park. A bushfire damaged the park in January 1994.

A seaplane crashed into Jerusalem Bay near Sydney Harbour on December 31, 2017, shortly after takeoff, killing the pilot and five passengers.

Locations, access and facilities

The park has many attractions that can only be reached by walking paths. Long stretches of the park border the shores of Broken Bay, Pittwater, and Cowan Creek, making it a good place for boating. Railway stations are located at Mount Colah, Mount Kuring-gai, Berowra, and Cowan. All roads in the area are paved, and each has a gate where a daily fee is collected.

• Bobbin Head is on Cowan Creek and includes a marina, picnic areas, a small store, and a restaurant that was once part of the Bobbin Head Inn. The area also has fire trails, a walk through mangroves, and Aboriginal engravings.
• Appletree Bay has picnic areas, a boat ramp, jetty, toilets, picnic tables, and barbecues.
• The Basin is a lagoon with a beach on the western side of Pittwater. It includes picnic areas and is the only place in the national park where camping is allowed. Access is via West Head Road through The Basin Track or by ferry from Palm Beach Wharf.
• West Head is a headland at the northeastern tip of the National Park. A lookout on West Head offers views of Barrenjoey, Palm Beach, and Broken Bay. The Flint & Steel Guesthouse was one of the first buildings there. Gun emplacements were built during World War II, and a bush path leads to their remains.
• Barrenjoey Headland is at the northern end of Palm Beach and is separated from the rest of the park by 1 kilometer of water, Pittwater. It is home to the historic Barrenjoey Head Lighthouse, built in 1880.
• The Sphinx Memorial is a sandstone monument that honors fallen soldiers from the Australian Imperial Force who fought with William Shirley during World War I. It was created by returned soldiers in the 1920s and took about one and a half years to build.
• Cottage Point is Sydney’s smallest locality and is listed as a heritage conservation area. The Cottage Point Kiosk and Boat Hire, built around 1918, is located at the entrance to Coal and Candle Creek.
• Jerusalem Bay is accessible via a walking track that is part of the Great North Walk, starting near Cowan railway station on the Pacific Highway. The path passes through a creek gorge with temperate rainforest and large turpentines before reaching the bay. At the bay, there is an old abandoned habitation site. The area opens to Cowan Water and Broken Bay, making it popular for boating and fishing. The track continues up to Campbell’s Crater, a volcanic diatreme containing subtropical rainforest species like red cedars and cabbage palms, with a floor covered in ferns.