Lane Cove National Park is located 10km north-west of Sydney in NSW, Australia.
We love visiting national parks wherever we go. During our recent trip to eastern states we were lucky to stay at the caravan park (Lane Cove Discovery Park) which has direct entry into Lane Cove NP. This national park offers an escape from city life without having to travel far. Beautiful Lane Cove River passes through the park before flowing into Sydney Harbour.
Things to do at Lane Cove National Park
Lane Cove National Park is a great place for a day out with the family. There are easy walks around the park, cycling paths, as well numerous picnic spots with bbq facilities.
Flora and fauna
Both the park and the river are home to a lot of interesting flora and fauna.
Scribbly gum, Eucalyptus haemastoma is a fascinating gum tree. It has distinctive markings on its trunk, as if someone scribbled on them, hence the common name – scribbly gum. Interestingly, the scribbles are caused by the moth as it moves between the old and new bark.
Sydney red gum, Angophora costata, is an another pretty gum tree. It is characterized by convoluted branches. It sheds bark, like many gum trees do, to reveal orange colour smooth trunk.
Eastern water dragon lizard is abundant in the national park, as well as the nearby caravan park.
Australian brush turkey. We found quite a number of them while staying at Lane Cove Discovery park in NSW. They were not shy at all and frequently visited us. Love their bright red head and yellow throat wattle (in males). As they do not occur in WA, we found them very fascinating.
Sulphur-crested cockatoo, native to eastern states of Australia is quite a large and rather common bird. They are intelligent, loud, especially when they are in big flocks, noisy, as well as ‘nosy’. We (especially our younger son) enjoyed meeting them at Lane Cove Discovery park. Although, at the end, we had to tell them off when they became too friendly😊.
Noisy miner – a bird from the honeyeater family – is another pretty bird you can see frequently at Lane Cove National Park.
Entry to the park
Entry to the park is $8 per vehicle. Although, if you stay at Lane Cove Discovery Park, you can just walk into the national park for free.
