Lane Cove National Park
A 670-hectare river valley of dense bush 10 km from Sydney's CBD, where a 1930s weir turned tidal salt water into flat calm paddling water.
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The Lane Cove River cuts a rugged valley through the suburbs, lined with sclerophyll forest, heathland, mangroves, and tidal flats. Picnic areas have sat along the bank since the 1920s; north of the Tourist Park road the terrain gets wilder and the crowds thin out fast.
What to look for
- The weir near Fullers Bridge, built in the 1930s to hold a steady fresh-water level — this is where rowing boats and canoes take to the water
- Vegetation shifting from sclerophyll forest to heathland to mangroves and tidal flats as you move along the valley, driven by changes in soil and topography
- Picnic clearings interspersed in bush between Fullers Road bridge and the Tourist Park turnoff — the heart of the 1920s public park
Enter from De Burghs Bridge on Ryde Road or via Lane Cove Road; the park is rarely more than a kilometre wide and most of it is rugged slope, not flat path.
Lane Cove National Park is one of 23 sights worth the detour in Sydney, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Sydney pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Sydney
- Sydney Opera HouseJørn Utzon won the design competition in 1957, directed construction, then resigned before it ever opened — Queen Elizabeth II cut the ribbon on 20 October 1973.
- Sydney Harbour BridgeWalk the arch of the world's tallest steel bridge — nicknamed "the Coathanger" — with Sydney Harbour spread out below you and the arch top rising 134 m above the water.
- Accor StadiumBuilt in 1999 for A$690 million, this was the largest Olympic stadium ever constructed — originally squeezing in 115,000 people.
- Sydney Tower EyeAt 309 m above the CBD, this is the highest observation deck in the Southern Hemisphere by deck elevation — clearing Auckland's Sky Tower by nearly 30 m.
- Australian MuseumThe world's fifth oldest natural history museum has been in Sydney since 1827 — older than the colony could really afford it.
- Taronga ZooFive thousand animals on the Mosman shore — and the Sydney skyline watches from across the water.