Cathedral Rocks National Park

Rock-hopping isn’t just for the wallaroos at Cathedral Rock National Park. Hike to the park’s main boulder piles of Woolpack Rocks and Cathedral Rock and scramble to their summits. Then enjoy the superb views across the wilderness landscape of dry eucalypt forest and granite outcrops. The park’s rock formations are particularly photogenic in late-afternoon light or mist.

Take short walks from the campgrounds, or do a long hike between them. For an exhilarating challenge, you can carry your pack for the 10.4km Barokee to Native Dog Creek walk, camp at the other end, and retrace your steps later.   

Whether you’re visiting the park for a picnic lunch or camping for a few days, there are plenty of birdwatching opportunities. The screech of the glossy black cockatoo lets you know there’s a flock overhead. You may be fortunate enough to spot the endangered turquoise parrot, and remember to look out for the wedge-tailed eagle silently circling the granite tors.

Native vegetation

Although the Park is predominantly covered in bare granite or poor soils derived from granite, its vegetation shows great diversity. The rugged topography has created a range of habitats including rocky tors, mid-slopes with deep sandy soil, and low-lying swamps with deep peaty soil.

Because of the high altitude, many of the plants growing here are alpine and sub-alpine species more commonly found in the Snowy Mountains and Tasmania.

Dry eucalypt forests

Most of the Park is covered in a mixed forest of narrow-leaved peppermint , wattle-leaved peppermint and mountain gum. New England peppermint dominates the swampy valleys, while Youman’s stringybark and mountain gum are common on the rocky slopes where the soil is shallow. Occasional brown barrel and snow gum trees are scattered throughout the area.

The understorey varies from open to quite densely vegetated, but always contains shrubs with small hard leaves. Pea flowers and mountain holly thrive here, as do the small-leaved heath plants. Larger shrubs like conesticks, the geebungs and crinkle bush grow alongside tantoon tea tree, lemon bottlebrush, grass tree, prickly Moses and a number of other spiky wattles. The taller forests may also have a small tree layer of silver wattle, broad-leaf hickory, fern-leaf wattle, black she-oak and coast banksia.

Apart from patches of snow grass, the ground is generally covered with fibrous plants like the mat rush, flax lily and the native iris that produces clusters of three-petalled purple flowers.

Heathlands

The park's valleys are broad and swampy creating a complex group of plant communities. Many of the fen and fen-heath plants are subalpine species at the northern limit of their range. Herbs like cord-rush, Alpine fan flower, yellow-eyes, tufted lily and various sedges and rushes dominate the fen community. Donkey orchids and slender leek orchids grow amongst these blady species.

Fen-heath has an overstorey of low shrubs like the myrtle tea tree, alpine Epacris, heath myrtle, alpine bottlebrush and lemon bottlebrush. The very pretty purple flowered coast mint bush also grows here. Between the fen and fenheath are small areas of sphagnum bog; thick hummocks of yellow moss which can absorb huge quantities of water. As the water slowly trickles out during the dry part of the year, these bogs are immensely important to the survival of the plants downstream from them.

Native animals

A range of mammals has been recorded in the Park. They include the New Holland mouse, common and little bent-winged bat, tiger quoll, brush-tailed phascogale, greater glider, ringtail possum, eastern grey kangaroo, wallaroo, red-necked and swamp wallaby. The brush-tailed rock wallaby and parma wallaby are also thought to live in the area.

Small ground mammals such as marsupial mice, native bush rats and native swamp rats are also found in the Park. The koala is listed as vulnerable under the Threatened Species Conservation Act (TSC Act).

The bird life is varied. Vulnerable species such as the glossy black cockatoo, turquoise parrot and powerful owl occur in the park. The superb lyrebird inhabits the moist gullies and forests. The wedge-tailed eagle is commonly seen overhead while large numbers of thornbills, finches and wagtails occupy the heath and shrubby understorey of the forests.

Landscape and Geology

The granites of the New England batholith, which formed deep beneath the earth’s surface 270 million years ago, dominate the Park. For the next 50 million years further intrusions of molten rock was forced into fissures deep within the earth’s crust, forming some of the dykes evident in the Park today. Weathering has exposed large granite tors most notably Cathedral Rock, a series of large granite boulders perched one on top of another to a height of about 200 metres and extending approximately one kilometre.

The most recent geological feature in the Park is the basalt capping on the summit of Round Mountain, a domed peak in the centre of the Park. These basalt flows originated in the Ebor volcano, centred to the east of Point Lookout, which was active around 18 million years ago.

The topography of the Park is generally undulating with some rugged granite outcrop areas. The altitude of the Park varies from 1,100m to 1,584 above sea level at the summit of Round Mountain - the highest point on the New England Tablelands.

© State of New South Wales through the Office of Environment and Heritage

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Photos of Cathedral Rocks National Park, Woolpack Rocks, Ebor Falls

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