Guide to Marramarra National Park

Marramarra National Park is on the southern side of the Hawkesbury River, to the north-west of Sydney. The national park covers many sandstones ridges as well as mangrove swamps along the Hawkesbury River and its tributaries. Although described as “one of the Hawkesbury’s best-kept secrets”, many of the bushwalking and mountain-biking routes follow the top of ridges along fire trails, and are not particularly pleasant – especially in summer. However, there are are a few nice trails for bushwalking and mountain-biking, as well as opportunities for kayaking.

The park is bounded by the Hawkesbury River in the north, Berowra Creek to the east, and private land to the south and west; urbanisation and development of private land has meant that some trails are no longer publicly accessible (many of these have been illegally blocked by land owners).

There are a handful of trig stations in Marramarra National Park, with a few close to trails and many more requiring some serious bush-bashing along remote ridges.

The traditional custodians of Marramarra were the Darug (or Dharug) people, and there are many indigenous heritage sites in Marramarra National Park including rock engravings, cave art, grinding grooves, scarred trees and stone arrangements. Canoelands, one of the most significant Aboriginal sites around Sydney, was of great importance in the ritual and mythology of the local people.

Bushwalks in Marramarra National Park

The majority of bushwalks in the park are firetrails (which also allow mountain biking, an often horses), although there are a few dedicated bushwalking tracks.

Bushwalk	Length	Grade	Description	AllTrails Map
Calabash Ridge Fire Trail	2.6km	Easy	Partial loop on a firetrail. No views.	Map
Ben Bullen Road Trail	3.0km	Easy	Partly overgrown trail descends to Colah Creek	Map
Waddell Ridge Fire Trail	4.8km	Easy	Firetrail to Yurts Track, whch descends to Banks Creek	Map
Forest Glen Trail	5.8km	Easy	Service trail for electrical pylons. No views.	Map
Calabash Point (Fretus Hotel)	7.6km	Easy	Interesting bushwalk to ruins of abandoned hotel	Map
Simpsons Hill Trail	8.2km	Easy	Service trail for electrical pylons. Minimal views.	Map
Duckponds Ridge Trail	8.6km	Easy	Firetrail along ridge. Steep descent at the end. No views.	Map
Weavers Ridge Trail	9.5km	Easy	Nice firetrail walk to views over Hawkesbury River	Map
Collingridge Point	10.6km	Easy	Firetrail to nice lookout over Berowra Creek	Map
Peebles Road Fire Trail	11.4km	Easy	Firetrail along ridge with a few branches. Not many views.	Map
Smugglers Ridge to Marramarra Ridge	13.2km	Easy/Moderate	Half firetrail & half bushwalking track; descends to Marramarra Creek	Map
Coba Point	19.5km	Easy	Long bushwalk along ridge to lookout (average views)	Map
Canoelands Ridge to Gentlemans Halt	22km	Moderate	Firetrail until steep descent to campground on Hawkesbury River	Map

Camping in Marramarra National Park

There are four campgrounds in Marramarra National Park; all are remote and one of them is only accessible by kayak or boat. Bookings are essential for all campgrounds, except the Marramarra Creek Orchard Campground.

Mountain Biking

There are many options for mountain biking in Marramarra National Park – almost all the trails are fire trails, where bikes (and often horses) are allowed. However, most of the trails are “out and back” trails along ridges and not partiularly interesting. A few options are:

• Coba Ridge (Neverfail Fire Trai) – easy and fairly level 10km return ride to Collingridge Point, or a much more challenging 20km return ride to Coba Point
• Marramarra Ridge Trail is a moderately hard 8km return ride down to the Marramarra Creek, with some very steep sections

Kayaking and Boating in Marramarra National Park

Marramarra National Park has many waterways that can be explored by kayak or boat, with three of the four campgrounds and many small beaches accessible by kayak. There are a few kayak launching areas, although the upper reaches of Marramarra Creek is a long trip from all of the start points. There’s a useful interactive map on the Waterways Guide, a paddling guide to Australian waterways.

Getting to Marramarra National Park

The national park is accessed from the south via Dural, or via Hornsby and then along a very twisty road through Galston Gorge – it’s about 50km and just under an hour north of Sydney. Two main roads provide access to the boundaries of Marramarra National Park: Bloodwood Road (in Fiddletown) to the southern edge of the park and the Old Northern Road past Glenorie to the middle of the park. There is no reliable public transport to any of the trailheads.

Maps

There’s no map specifically for Marramarra National Park, but two detailed topographic maps cover the entire park and all the bushwalks:

• 9131-3S Gunderman (1:25K) – Buy / Download
• 9130-4N Cowan (1:25K) – Buy / Download (most bushwalks are on this map)

More information

• National Parks (NPWS) – Marramarra National Park
• Katrina Hemingway – Best Walks around Marramarra National Park