Walking Track

A dirt track runs through the scribbly gum and angophora woodland at Waratah Park, Duffys Forest. Red clay banks rise to one side of the path. Ferns crowd the embankment. Bark strips and leaf litter cover the ground. Light filters through the open canopy above. The bush, left to itself, looks the way it always has. The 12.6-hectare site at 13 Namba Road sits at the edge of Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, occupying Crown land within the traditional territories of the Garrigal and Terramerragal clans, whose connection to this country extends beyond 7,400 years. The lot was excluded from Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park in the late nineteenth century as Railway Reserve 63. The railway was never built. In 1967, Fauna Productions, formed by Lee Robinson, John McCallum, and Lionel "Bob" Austin, received permission from the NSW Government to occupy approximately 10 hectares of this Crown land for a television production. The Ranger Headquarters was constructed that year, along with roads, power and water connections, and a helipad. The series, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, began filming in May 1967, with 91 episodes produced across three series before production wound up in September 1969. Skippy the Bush Kangaroo was broadcast in 128 countries and dubbed into 25 languages, reaching a reported weekly global audience of over 300 million. The bushland surrounding the set was the backdrop that made that image. In January 1970, the site opened to the public as a wildlife park. It operated under successive tourism operators until the business failed in 2006. Since then, the Duffys Forest Residents Association has contributed volunteer hours to bushland restoration, and Sydney Wildlife operates a rehabilitation facility on site, entirely donor-funded, with no government funding at any level. Ownership transferred to the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council on 28 August 2014. Waratah Park was listed on the NSW State Heritage Register on 27 February 2015. The track through the trees was here before any of it, and it remains.