Wild Guide Sydney

Discover hidden beaches, secret swimming holes, ancient forests and stunning viewpoints. Venture into the bush and camp under star-filled skies. Find indigenous rock art, slot canyons and glow worm dells, all within a few hours of Sydney, including Jervis Bay, Canberra, the Blue Mountains, the Central West and the Mid North Coast.

This inspiring guidebook showcases hundreds of hidden gems, featuring dazzling photography, evocative travel writing, maps, and detailed directions. New from the publishers of Wild Swimming Sydney, taking you to places other guidebooks don’t reach. It’s the perfect companion for adventurers, families, armchair explorers, and campervan or RV travellers.

Discover

Discover over 700 hidden places, wild adventures and best pitstops..

• Venture into sea caves and under rock arches.
• Swim in secret waterfalls, rockpools, waterholes and canyons.
• Spot iconic and elusive Aussie animals, and watch humpback whales migrate from the clifftops.
• Find hidden coves and wild remote beaches.

• Discover ancient engravings, Aboriginal rock art and abandoned industrial relics in the bush.
• Marvel at glow worm dells that light up the night.
• Climb sunset hilltops and camp under the stars.
• Enjoy a flat white, craft beer, or fine dining at local breweries, restaurants and cafes.

About the authors

Joe and Cat are travel writers, photographers, and explorers dedicated to discovering wild and lesser-known places for their popular adventure travel blog, WalkMyWorld.com. Residing in Sydney, they have been exploring New South Wales for the past 12 years. You will usually find them out on the hiking trails or planning their next adventures over a strong flat white.

Introduction from the book

There can’t be many places on Earth where within a few hours of the biggest city in the country you can have so many incredible wild experiences. Yet close to Sydney, you can swim in emerald waters beneath towering waterfalls, hike to remote valleys and ancient Gondwana rainforests, float through sculpted canyon walls on a lilo, and venture deep into ornate marble caves. Beaches are everywhere, from white sand and turquoise water on the coast to pristine sand backed by blue gums along the rivers. And the fun doesn’t end when the sun goes down – by night, you can hunt for glow worms and bioluminescent mushrooms.

We often think adventure begins when we leave our home country, overlooking the treasure trove of incredible places right on our doorstep. Yet it really doesn’t take long to leave the concrete behind and find a place that feels a million miles from civilisation.

An Ancient Land of Extremes

To explore this area is to experience an ancient land. The rock of the Sydney Basin is between 200 and 300 million years old, and this sandstone characterises the landscape. It’s what makes up the Great Dividing Range with its deep canyons, waterfalls, steep cliffs and plateaus. Around Canberra, you can see places such as London Bridge Arch and Marble Arch, which were formed from limestone over 400 million years ago. And it isn’t just the rocks that are ancient, the Gondwana rainforests of Barrington Tops are believed to date back over 180 million years, to the time when Australia was part of the ancient supercontinent.
First Nations people have lived and cared for this land for over 60,000 years – the longest continuous living culture on Earth. Aboriginal people have a deep connection with the land and many of their sites are considered sacred. It’s a privilege that we can still see some of their ancient artwork around the bush today. While we’ve only included well-known public sites in this book, you may well stumble on some lesser-known places as you explore. It’s one of the great delights of hiking in this region, though it’s important never to touch any of the art to help preserve it for the next 60,000 years to come.
Like much of Australia, the Sydney region has been shaped by its extreme climate. Those who live in the area will have witnessed these powerful forces during periods of drought, flooding and bush fires. The effects of these weather events can be seen on the trails, whether it’s empty waterfalls during long, dry spells or tracks laden with debris following big flooding events. It can be very moving to hike through the charred remains left by bushfires, but it’s always heartening to see the land and wildlife bounce back in the years that follow. It’s a poignant reminder that Mother Nature is all powerful.

The Importance of the Bush

This Wild Guide is the culmination of over a decade spent bushwalking around the Sydney region. We started with the well-known spots and as our love for the bush grew, we began to delve deeper and deeper, discovering hidden treasures far beyond our wildest expectations.
We originally intended to stay in Sydney for a year, but over ten years later, we’re still captivated. It never ceases to amaze us that finding azure rockpools and spectacular waterfalls that haven’t been named is still possible in 2025.
This book is designed to plan day trips and weekends in and away from Sydney, and the areas covered are at most a four-and-a-half-hour drive from the city. The locations range from Port Macquarie in the north to Ulladulla in the south, and Orange in the west. We’ve also included Canberra and the ACT as we believe the wild places in Australia’s capital city are highly underrated.
Exploring the wilderness brings immense mental and physical health benefits, and in a world where technology has made us all more sedentary, it’s never been more important to get outdoors and reconnect with nature. We live in a time where our wild spaces are under threat from deforestation and development, so getting out into the bush helps protect it for future generations. If we stop hiking, wild swimming and generally immersing ourselves in the wilderness, we run the risk of losing it.

This guide will show you the beauty of the Sydney Basin and includes the following:
Wild swimming spots: Beautiful, swimmable waterholes in the bush. Some are under waterfalls, in canyons or simply a deep bend in the river.
Rockpools: Coastal shelfs or secluded coves that have been eroded over millennia to create plunge pools and swimmable rockpools.
Wildlife: Places where you can see Aussie icons in the wild – some common, some rare – whether they’re kangaroos, koalas, platypuses, wombats or humpback whales. We’ve also included some wildlife you might not expect, including glow worms and fireflies.
Canyons: Carved through erosion and tectonic forces, some are completely dry and walkable, others are filled with water and require swimming. A canyon trip feels like an adventure into Jurassic Park.
Historical sites: Remnants of our predecessors, hidden in the bush and sometimes in the middle of the city. This book includes Aboriginal sites, including rock art and engravings, as well as the ruins of early Europeans’ industry in the bush.

The Good Life
No trip into the bush is complete without slowing down, and that includes good food. Coffee lovers will be happy that, as caffeine addicts, we love nothing more than starting our day with a strong flat white and this book has suggestions for where to get your morning brew in almost every region. Most cafes will include a good feed to fuel your day’s adventure, but others take their coffee so seriously that they offer nothing else (some won’t even let you deviate from whole milk…).
We’ve also included breweries, wineries and local producers to really help you get a feel for the place and support regional communities.
We hope this book inspires locals or anyone who visits Sydney to venture a little deeper and find a connection with the wilds that will stick with you forever.

The Wild name and trademark is used in Australia under licence from Adventure Entertainment Pty Ltd (AE)