Cascades picnic area
Macquarie Pass National Park
Overview
Take a break from your road trip or relax after Cascades walk at this sunny picnic area amid the cool rainforest, near Wollongong on the south coast of NSW.
- Type
- Picnic areas
- Accessibility
- Medium
- What to
bring - Hat, sunscreen, drinking water
- Please note
- Extensive bush regeneration work has been undertaken in the picnic area – please help their development by staying in designated visitor areas.
- Tall forest is best avoided when there are strong winds
- There is limited mobile reception in this park
- Remember to take your binoculars if you want to bird watch
Even if you don’t have time for the short and very pretty bushwalk to the cascades, the picnic area is a gorgeous place to stop for lunch as you travel along the Illawarra Highway. Surrounded by rainforest and close to a creek, the open grassy area is the perfect spot to spread out a rug and relax.
Cool in summer and much warmer than the highlands in winter, you can visit all through the year to check out the abundant birdlife, resident lyrebirds and goannas. Perhaps you’ll even spot a platypus in the creek. Enjoy the variety of the huge eucalypts, turpentines, lilly pillys, cabbage tree palms and native figs and the view of the creek lined with ferns.
If you’re feeling a little more energetic, it’s a lovely shaded walk along Cascades walk.
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General enquiries
- National Parks Contact Centre
- 7am to 7pm daily
- 1300 072 757 (13000 PARKS) for the cost of a local call within Australia excluding mobiles
- parks.info@environment.nsw.gov.au
Operated by
- Wollongong office
- Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 4.30pm.
- 02 4224 4188
- npws.illawarrahighlands@environment.nsw.gov.au
- Unit G Ground Floor, 84 Crown Street, Wollongong NSW 2500
Park info
- in Macquarie Pass National Park in the South Coast and Country NSW regions
Macquarie Pass National Park is always open but may have to close at times due to poor weather or fire danger.
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