Angourie to Brooms Head Hike (18km)

Long beaches broken by rocky headlands give Yuraygir National Park a coastline that feels broader and less built over than much of northern New South Wales. The park stretches for more than 60 kilometres from Lake Wooloweyah near the mouth of the Clarence River south to the Corindi River, protecting a long run of ocean shore backed by heath, forest, swamps, estuaries, freshwater creeks and coastal lakes. That range of country is a big part of what gives this coast its character. One section may be all wind-shaped dunes and open beach, while the next turns to sandstone outcrops, paperbark-fringed wetlands or a still lagoon tucked behind the foredunes.

The park sits within a larger chain of protected coastal country on the far north coast, linked in landscape terms with reserves north of the Clarence River including Bundjalung and Broadwater. This broader setting matters because Yuraygir is not just a narrow strip of shore. It is part of one of the more extensive remaining conservation areas on the east coast, large enough to hold whole coastal systems rather than isolated scenic pockets. For walkers, that translates to a strong sense of continuity in the landscape, with rivers, dune fields, headlands and woodland all belonging to the same coastal story.

This is also Yaegl and Gumbaynggirr Country. The name Yuraygir comes from the Yaegl language, and the coast holds a long Aboriginal history of camping, fishing, ceremony and movement through these shorelines and estuaries. In some parts of the park, pandanus is a visible reminder of that cultural continuity, having long been used for weaving. The cultural presence here is not confined to a single site but embedded across the landscape, especially around waterways, headlands and places where fresh water meets the sea.

European use left lighter but still visible traces, especially from grazing, timber cutting, fishing and simple coastal holiday settlements. Some hut sites and other remnants survive, but the stronger impression is of a coast where natural patterns still dominate. Fire, weeds and feral animals have all affected parts of the park, and sections of vegetation have needed active recovery, yet Yuraygir still reads as a long, varied piece of coastal country rather than a series of disconnected reserves.