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Cascades picnic area

Macquarie Pass National Park

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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.

For directions, safety and practical information, see visitor info

 

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A family walk a boardwalk section of Bouddi coastal walk, Bouddi National Park. Photo: John Spencer/OEH.