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Royal National Park

Royal National Park

Australia

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Overview

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 and is situated on Dharawal country.

The 151-square-kilometre national park is about 29 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district near the localities of Loftus, Otford, and Waterfall. It is the second oldest national park in the world after Yellowstone, which was established in the US in 1872. It was founded by Sir John Robertson, Acting Premier of New South Wales, and formally proclaimed on 26 April 1879. Its original name was just National Park, but it was renamed in 1955 after Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia passed by in the train during her 1954 tour. The park was added to the Australian National Heritage List in December 2006.

The park is situated in the traditional lands of the Dharawal, an Aboriginal Australian people. More precisely, the area known today as Royal National Park is the north-eastern section of the country of the Aboriginal language group. Dharawal country encompasses ocean and estuarine shorelines from Botany Bay to the Shoalhaven River, and forested lands as far west as the Georges River and Appin, and possibly Camden.

The park includes today's settlements of Audley, Maianbar and Bundeena. There was once a railway line connected to the Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line but this closed and was converted to a heritage tramway operated by the Sydney Tramway Museum in Loftus.

Audley can be accessed by road, from Loftus, Waterfall or Otford, and there are several railway stations (Loftus, Engadine, Heathcote, Waterfall, Helensburgh and Otford) on the outskirts of the park. Bundeena and Maianbar can also be accessed by road through the park or by the passenger ferry service from Cronulla.

There are numerous cycling and walking trails, barbecue areas and picnic sites throughout the park. Over 100 kilometres of walking tracks take in a wide range of scenery. Cycling is allowed on some fire trails and only on specially marked tracks within the Park.[10] The specially marked mountain biking tracks are bi-directional; care should be taken when traversing these trails. A fee of $12.00 applies when taking a car into the Park.

The most popular walk is the Coast Walk, which skirts the park's eastern edge and delivers exceptional coastal scenery. It is a 30 kilometre track, involving walking from Bundeena to Otford, or vice versa. It's recommended that walkers allow 2 days for the walk. This walk is often done as part of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award. The Wallumarra Track (Wallumarra is an Aboriginal word for education/protect) was constructed in 1975 to meet the growing need for Environmental Education and as a supplement to the park's walking track system. The park is intensely used for environmental education by schools, TAFEs, universities and other groups.

The park has been burnt in bushfires on several occasions, most notably in 1939, 1994 and in the 2001 Black Christmas fires. Australian native bush naturally regenerates after bushfires and as of 2008 few signs of these fires remain visible. In times of extreme fire danger the parks service might close the park to ensure visitor safety.

There are camping sites at Bonnie Vale, North Era and Uloola Falls. These are the only places where camping is permitted within the park, and they are regulated with a booking/registration system, which requires pre-booking a site. The park charges a vehicle access fee, but is free for people on foot.

Address: Sir Bertram Stevens Dr, Royal National Park NSW 2233, Australia
Area: 150.9 km²
Hours: Open ⋅ Closes 8:30PM

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