Royal National Park — Australia's First National Park

History

Sir John Robertson founded the park as part of his 1861 land reforms to break the squatters' monopoly on Crown land. Originally called simply National Park, it was renamed Royal National Park in 1955 to honour Queen Elizabeth II's 1954 Australian tour — she passed through on a train from Wollongong. The park joined the Australian National Heritage List in 2006.

See the full timeline →

Geography

Covering more than 16,000 hectares, Nasho hugs the east coast from the Port Hacking River near Cronulla down to Otford near Wollongong. Landscapes range from coastal cliffs and heathlands to deep river valleys and mudflats — mid-sized compared to the Blue Mountains (~270,000 ha) but remarkably diverse for its scale.

• Coastal cliffs & heath: Salt-tolerant shrubs, grass trees, threatened cliff-top grasslands
• River valleys: Eucalypt forests, ferns, waratahs, wattles and rainforest remnants
• Port Hacking mudflats: Mangroves, crabs, herons and tidal rock pools

For habitats, species and safety around rock pools, see ourwildlife and nature guide.

What visitors come for

Beaches, bushwalking, mountain biking, picnics, camping, rowboats on the Hacking River, and swimming holes. Cliff jumping into rock pools is popular with locals but not sanctioned and strongly discouraged by park management.

NPWS protects remnant ecosystems through biodiversity surveys, bush regeneration and public education — many species here are threatened and found nowhere else near Sydney.