Bouddi National Park  

The Bouddi National Park, we now take for granted, came about over several decades through the work of a number of individuals .

The first reservation of land for public purposes was made in 1876 when all vacant Crown Land on the seaboard between Port Stephens and Jervis Bay was reserved from sale "on account of coal". The reserve extended 20 chains (400 m) back from high water and affected land not alienated to private persons or reserved by the Crown for any public purpose.

The dedication of Bouddi as a "Natural Park" followed a campaign by bush walkers, particularly Marie Byles, in the early 1930s. As a result, 650 acres (263 hectares) was set aside in July 1935. The following year it was named Bouddi Natural Park and Mr AA Perry, a fisherman who had a shack at Mainland Bay, was appointed honourary ranger.

By 1940, the park covered 975 acres (395 hectares) and was administered by trustees who worked hard to increase its size and preserve it in its natural condition. 

In 1967, when   the National   Parks  and Wildlife  Service was set up, it was renamed Bouddi State Park and in 1974 it became Bouddi National Park. Today, Bouddi National Park continues to grow, thanks to the hard work and vision of people like Allen and Beryl Strom who were strong advocates of the park and worked continuously to lobby the government for more land and the park's marine extension. Bushland at Daleys Point and MacMasters Ridge has been transferred to the NPWS by Gosford City Council under the Coastal Open space System (COSS) as additions to the park.

One of the major drawcard is Daleys Point Aboriginal Site. Access is via a gravel road opposite the intersection of Maitland Bay Drive and Wards Hill Rd. Follow this road for 2-3 km. Go straight ahead when the road bends to the right and it will lead to a carpark from whence you can see a rock shelf marked with engravings. Below the outcrop is a shelter where drawings and stencils can be found.

Camping information

There are facilities at Bouddi for day use, lightweight, walk-in camping and limited car-based camping. A fee applies for camping and campers must book in advance through the NPWS regional office. Phone 02 4320 4203.

Discovery walks

The NPWS runs a series of walks and activities called "The Discovery Program". A printed program is produced six times a year and is available from the Maitland Bay Centre, by mail from the NPWS office in Gosford. It is also available by email.

Our Backyard Park

Doug Beckers, Wildlife Officer, Department of Environment and Climate Change gave the following report to the August 2010 meeting of the Killcare Wagstaffe Trust. It is a repeat of a talk he gave on Australia Day 2008 at Wagstaffe.

I bet everyone here today has dreamt about visiting some exotic place that has fantastic rainforest, unusual and bizarre wildlife and spectacular scenery. I know a place where you can visit warm temperate lowland rainforest (Bouddi Grand Deep and Fraser Road), tall eucalypt forests (Macmasters Ridge, Bouddi Grand Deep and Riley’s Bay), and coastal heath (Bombi and Mourawaring Moors) with hundreds of wildflowers all in a single day.

In this same place, there are animals that glide from tree to tree at night (Greater, Yellow-bellied, Sugar and Feathertailed Gliders) that are hunted by large owls (Powerful, Sooty and Barking Owls) that make blood curdling calls (Masked Owl). There are mammals that weigh 1800kg at birth and drink 450 litres of milk a day from their mother (Humpback Whale Calfs). There are other mammals that weigh less than a tenth of one gram at birth, and the males, at 10 months of age, die from the exhaustion of mating (Brown Antechinus). There are also small flying mammals that weigh only 4 grams fully grown that can eat half their weight in mosquitoes in a single night (Little Forest Bats).

This place also has special snakes that only eat termites (Brown-snouted Blind Snake), and other snakes that only eat the young of the ferocious hoppy joe or bull ants (Blackish Blind-snake). It has huge lizards that lay their eggs in termite mounds where the termites keep them warm until they hatch (Lace Monitors).

Imagine a place that has over 150 different types of birds including parrots, honeyeaters, finches and robins. Some of the birds arrive at this place during the spring and summer from South-east Asia and New Guinea, lay their eggs in other birds’ nests then fly back north to avoid our winter (Koel and Channel-billed Cuckoo). Others arrive from as far away as Siberia over 10000km away, feed in our mangroves and mudflats then fly back to breed for a northern summer (Bar-tailed Godwit and Eastern Curlew).

There are birds in this place that incubate their eggs in huge mounds of rotting vegetation. These birds use their mouth as a thermometer, and can regulate the temperature of the eggs by obsessively manipulating the amount of leaves on top of the mound (Australian Brush-turkey).

This place has a magnificent 20m high waterfall only 50 meters from a major road, where the stream flows through a lowland rainforest that has special plants with names such as Snow-wood, Supple Jack, Sassafras, Coachwood, Tamarind and Lilypilly.

One of the most special areas in this place is the marine reserve which has the greatest diversity and number of fish species anywhere between Sydney and Newcastle, and has animals such as sea hares, sea horses, turboshells, brittle stars and predatory octopus.

This place also has significant Aboriginal Cultural heritage and contains several shell middens (Just north of Gerrin Point), charcoal drawings and rock engravings at spectacular lookouts (Daley’s Point Fire Trail).

The wildlife and natural features of this place are so valued by the local community that over 1100 hours have been spent on bush regeneration works by dedicated volunteers. Other volunteers provide a service by providing free advice to visitors and other volunteers look after injured wildlife, birds, reptiles, possums and fruit-bats at considerable personal expense and effort. Volunteers in the local Rural Fire Service also play a very important role in protecting the community from wildfires.

The place I'm referring to is, of course, Bouddi National Park here in our own backyard. Bouddi is a park that is so popular that it has had over 1,100 campers this summer holiday period, a place where you can ride a mountain bike along over 15km of fire trails and is a place where you can easily find serenity along a deserted walking track.

We are so lucky to have a national park in our own backyard that has unique wildlife and unspoilt beaches only walking distance away.

Bouddi National Park is a treasure trove of biodiversity, and is a credit to the people who had the vision to have the area protected from development and all those professional National Parks and Wildlife staff and volunteers who work so hard to maintain its values for us to enjoy. Today is a celebration about how lucky we are to be Australians, and I believe we are very fortunate to have a National Park that all Australians can be very proud of. I urge you this weekend to get out there, explore and enjoy.

Click on the logo to link to the NPWS website.

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