Royal National Park, Sydney, Australia
14 October 2005

Bridge over the Hacking River, Royal National Park, near Sydney

The wonderful Royal National Park, an expansive area of rainforest and heath covering some 15000ha, is just off the Prince’s Highway and only 15 miles (22km) from Sydney International Airport. Dedicated in 1879, it’s Australia’s oldest NP (and the second oldest in the world after the USA’s Yellowstone) and a world-wide favourite of mine: it’s straightforward to get to, it’s easy to find your way around, and it really is stunningly beautiful.

There are a number of different habitats and regions within the Park - the main one being a heath-covered sandstone plateau dominated by dense, low-growing vegetation favoured by such specialities as Southern Emu-wren and Tawny-crowned Honeyeater - but one section of it that I know quite well is a wide dirt-track that follows the Hacking River through some excellent eucalypt forest called “Lady Carrington’s Drive” (LCD) (photo left).

The walking here is fairly flat, not too difficult, and the track easy to follow - it’s not circular though, so if you fancy doing the walk bear in mind that the further you go, the further it is back to the car.(Oh, and watch out for cyclists - LCD is very popular and if you happen to be stood in the centre of it on a blind corner staring up into a tree, well, frankly you deserve to get a few well-chosen words of Aussie slang thrown at you…)

Birding here can be excellent at any time of the year, and you’re more or less guaranteed local forest specials like Superb Lyrebird (easy to see here, and which has the most incredibly loud and varied song I’ve ever heard), Satin Bowerbird, Green Catbird and Wonga Pigeon, and there’s a reasonable chance of seeing the endemic Rock Warbler (or Origma). The forest rings with the calls of Golden Whistlers, Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, dueting Eastern Whipbirds, and a host of twitters and soft seeps from a range of thornbills and scrubwrens.

There’s a Trip List at the bottom of the page, but it’s worth bearing in mind that I’d had no sleep the night before - I saw quite a bit more, but the species listed are the ones I identified for sure…

The simplest way to cover Lady Carrington’s Drive is to drive from the Park’s main entrance and follow the signs to Audley. The road drops down into a valley and over a low bridge which crosses the Hacking River. Just a couple of hundred metres on there is an entrance to parking areas by a picnic area and some short grass “lawns”. Park here and LCD will be on your left…

The birding starts right away, and it’s definitely worth “acclimatizing” by having a look around the car park and picnic area. The “lawns” here usually have Australian Wood Duck feeding on them, there are likely to be Pacific Black Duck and Dusky Moorhen on the river, and the trees are full of both Sulphur-crested Cockatoo and Crimson Rosella - the former are common, and their incredibly loud, almost prehistoric calls echo along the valley almost continuously. On this visit I also saw a Little Corella (which according to the field-guide shouldn’t be here) and a very active Willie Wagtail - a large fantail that habitually feeds on the ground. A nice start…

Little Corella Cocatua sanguinea

Willie Wagtail Rhipadura leucophrys

LCD itself follows the path of the Hacking river through some rough and wild-looking habitat for about 10km, until it reaches one of the main roads at its other end.

Regular forest-fires have burnt off much of the undergrowth that used to be here - revealing huge boulders and sandstone ledges and leaving many charred trunks - but there is still plenty of forest along the banks of the river and in protected gullies.

There are any number of interesting - and doubtless range-limited - plants here too, some of which will have taken advantage of the ground cover being burned-off: I’m not remotely competent to name any of them, but Duncan Fraser (who writes the brilliant Ben Cruachan Blog) is and he has kindly told me that the photograph (left) is of a NSW icon plant, the Flannel Flower Actinotus helianthi. I wish now I’d taken some more pictures of other plants - perhaps next time…

Birds can be found anywhere along LCD, and there really is something to look at most of the time - whether it be a small party of scrubwrens (I expect to at least see Yellow-throated Scrubwren and White-browed Scrubwren), the occasional small group of Variegated Fairy-wren, or Red-browed Finch flicking up off the path as you walk along.

White-browed Scrubwren Sericornis frontalis

Female Variegated Fairy-wren Malurus lambertii

Some of the “specials” here are surprisingly easy to see. Superb Lyrebirds, for example, can be found by walking quietly along and listening out either for a scratching in the undergrowth (Lyrebirds uncover their food much like thrushes) or for their amazingly loud, melodic “songs” that consists of all sorts of whistles and phrases - they’re renowned mimics too, and I’ve head one repeatedly giving a call like the auto-drive on a film camera and another that was giving a perfect whipbird call. These are not the most intelligent of birds, and if you approach them slowly you can get some really great views - though they do often stay in the shade making photography difficult…

Superb Lyrebird Menura novaehollandiae

A real highlight for me was finding a small group of Rockwarblers skittering over some boulders half-way along the track in the late afternoon.

Found only on Hawkesbury and other Sydney sandstone formations and nearby limestone formations (ie confined to areas on and around the Great Dividing Range, mainly within a 240 km radius of Sydney) this unobtrusive endemic is usually found around rocky outcrops, in steep rocky gullies where it forages on the ground and in low branches, probing for insects in rock crevices, in caves and under ledges. I’d not seen one here before - but had always figured that the habitat was right…

Rockwarbler Origma solitarius

Another great bird in the forest here is the extraordinary-sounding Eastern Whipbird. At almost any point along the river you can hear the duets of this secretive bird - the male giving a remarkable whistle that ends in an amazingly loud “whipcrack” that is almost immediately followed by the female’s “tchew, tchew”. It’s an umistakable and exotic sound - and worth the price of the car-rental alone!

I’ve never managed to get a photo of either before, but today was my lucky day, and it only took forty minutes to get the two images below…

Eastern Whipbird Psophodes olivaceus: male (calling) above, probable sub-adult below

An often excellent area to spend some time is in is a small picnic area called “Calala” - about a forty-five minute walk from the car-park (if you’re not birding of course - it took me nearly three hours to reach). The last time I was here (about five years ago) I had superb views of an adult and a juvenile Bassian Ground Thrush. Sadly, though I spent well over an hour keeping a wary (and weary to be honest) eye on the undergrowth, I wasn’t so fortunate this time - but it is (still) a very dependable site for Pied Currawong (which can be amazingly unafraid) and both Satin Bowerbird and Green Catbird, all of which can be tempted into the open by throwing down some food and standing back (the catbird moves like a rocket, so if you want a photo keep your finger on the shutter…)

Satin Bowerbird Ptilonorhynchus violaceus

Pied Currawong Strepera graculina (and a rucksack full of food?)

Incidentally there is good access to the Hacking River from the back of “Calala”, and I wandered down into the water.

I was quite taken aback by how silted up the river has become: water levels have been hard hit by years of drought, and it’s hard to imagine that it will get back to it’s full-blooded glory any time soon. But what do I know - it could rain for months from the moment I post this…

The Hacking River behind the “Calala” picnic-site

It’s a little bit discourteous to the beautiful birds that follow to describe them as “common and expected”, but all along the LCD the variety and numbers of birds are just excellent

Here’s a selection…

Golden Whistler Pachycephala pectoralis

Black-faced Monarch Monarchus melanopsis

Eastern Yellow Robin Eopsaltria australis

So, was it worth giving up much-needed sleep to see a bunch of birds I’d seen before in a place I’ve visited three or four times already? Absolutely - I probably walked about three miles/5kms each way and enjoyed every moment of it.

If you’ve only got one day in the Sydney area and are feeling like getting outside into some beautiful countryside and seeing some really good birds you could do far worse than come here…

Trip List:
English and scientific names mainly from “A Field Guide to Australian Birds”, Morecambe M. Parrish, 2004:

Australian Wood Duck Chenonetta jubata 4, Pacific Black Duck Anas superciliosus 6-8, Little Black Cormorant Phalacrocorax sulcirostris 2, Dusky Moorhen Gallinula tenebrosa several, Wonga Pigeon Leucosarcia melanoleuca c)10, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus funereus 2, Little Corella Cocatua sanguinea 1, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Cacatua galerita 50+, Rainbow Lorikeet Trichoglossus haematodus 2+, Crimson Rosella Platycercus elegans 10+,Fan-tailed Cuckoo Cacomantis flabellifornis 2 (+1 heard), Superb Lyrebird Menura novaehollandiae 6, White-throated Treecreeper Cormobates leucophaeus 4-6, Red-browed Treecreeper Climacteris erythrops 1, Variegated Fairy-wren Malurus lambertii 4, Spotted Pardalote Pardolatus punctatus 1, Rockwarbler Origma solitarius 4, Long-billed Scrubwren Sericornis magnirostris 1, Yellow-throated Scrubwren Sericornis citreogularis 4, White-browed Scrubwren Sericornis frontalis 10+, Brown Gerygone Gerygone mouki 2, Striated Thornbill Acanthiza lineata 10+, Lewin’s Honeyeater Melophagus lewinii 10+, Easten Spinebill Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris c)10, Eastern Yellow Robin Eopsaltria australis 4-5, Eastern Whipbird Psophodes olivaceus c)10, Golden Whistler Pachycephala pectoralis 4-5, Crested Shrike-tit Falcunculus frontatus 2, Black-faced Monarch Monarchus melanopsis 3, Magpie-lark Grallina cyanoleuca 1, Willie Wagtail Rhipadura leucophrys 1, Rufous Fantail Rhipidura rufifrons 2, Grey Fantail Rhipidura fuliginosa 1, Pied Currawong Strepera graculina 1, Green Catbird Ailuroedus melanotis 4, Satin Bowerbird Ptilonorhynchus violaceus 2, Silvereye Zosterops lateralis 10+, Red-browed Finch Neochmia temporalis 4

The Hacking River behind the “Calala” picnic-site

Getting to Royal National Park Sydney NSW Austalia.

The Royal National Park is readily accessible:

• By car the park is just off the Princes Highway - the main road south out of Sydney - and if you are planning on seeing a large part of the park then going by car is definitely the best way.
• There are four railway stations (Engadine, Waterfall, Heathcote and Loftus) with nearby access to the Royal National Park walking tracks.
• There is also a ferry service that runs from Cronulla to Bundeena at the northen boundary of the Royal National Park.

- For more info, go to www.cronullabeachyha.com/tourist-information

All photographs copyright Charlie Moores