The Three Sisters is in NSW’s most popular park, Blue Mountains National Park. Photo: Dietmar Rabich/Wikimedia Commons.
Blue Mountains National Park has held onto its crown with a lead of more than one million visits over the park that came in second place in a biennial government survey.
The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Park Visitor Survey tallies the number of domestic visits to almost 900 national parks and other areas and reserves across the state.
Blue Mountains National Park clenched the top spot for the second year running with more than 6.4 million domestic visits in the most recent survey year of 2022. Home to popular tourist attractions, including the Three Sisters, Meehni, Wilmah and Gunnedoo, the World Heritage-listed park increased its lead over the second-place ranked park by almost 500,000 visits.
The second most visited national park in NSW is the world’s second-oldest national park, Royal National Park on Sydney’s southern coast.
Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park in Sydney’s north sits third on the list, with its winding creeks, rainforest, rocky cliffs, mangroves and Aboriginal sites.
Number four is Lane Cove National Park which has bushland reaching to East Ryde, Pennant Hills, Wahroonga and West Chatswood, and in fifth place is the alpine Kosciuszko National Park.
Half of the top ten national parks listed below are located in Greater Sydney. The region set a record with more than 20 million visits to its 49 National Park reserves.
- Blue Mountains National Park, 6.40 million visits
- Royal National Park, 5.05 million visits
- Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, 4.40 million visits
- Lane Cove National Park, 2.61 million visits
- Kosciuszko National Park, 2.48 million visits
- Sydney Harbour National Park, 1.93 million visits
- Eurobodalla National Park, 1.41 million visits
- Garigal National Park, 1.18 million visits
- Cape Byron National Park, 1.03 million visits
- Brisbane Water National Park, 929,000 visits
Most visited NSW national parks: 2020 and 2022. Photo: Travis Radford.
Across the state, there were more than 53 million domestic visits to national parks in 2022, signifying an increase of almost 50 per cent in the past decade. Visits increased by more than five per cent between the last two survey periods, achieving the second highest visitation estimate on record. This was despite the state experiencing its second-wettest year on record since 1900.
A record 12.5 million of the 2022 visits were made by children. While around 1.8 million nights were spent in a campground, cottage, cabin or lighthouse.
Environment minister Penny Sharpe said it was clear that visits to national parks were growing post the COVID-19 pandemic.
“National parks are one of NSW’s greatest public assets, which are loved by people from within our state, across Australia and internationally,” she said.
“These are places to be in nature, to swim, to seek adventure, to understand Aboriginal and other heritage and to appreciate the beauty of our natural environment.”
Natures reserves in NSW conserve around 10 per cent of the state, protecting ecosystems across deserts, Alpine regions, World Heritage Gondwanaland rainforest and Ramsar-listed wetlands.
Minister Sharpe said the NSW Government was investing $74 million to upgrade visitor infrastructure in NSW national parks so people can continue to enjoy “unforgettable experiences”.
