Dharug National Park sits north of Sydney, held within the sandstone country of the Central Coast hinterland. But long before it was named a national park, this was — and remains — Dharug Country. The Dharug people have cared for this land for thousands of years. The ridgelines, the river valleys, the tall eucalypt forests and winding creeks are not simply landscape — they are story, memory and responsibility. Country here carries knowledge through rock engravings, grinding grooves, shell middens and pathways worn by generations who walked carefully and with purpose. Running through the park is the Old Great North Road, built between 1826 and 1836 by convict labour. Carved into sandstone and laid by hand, it was created to link Sydney to the Hunter Valley. Today it stands as one of the finest surviving examples of convict-built road in Australia and is recognised as part of the UNESCO World Heritage–listed Australian Convict Sites. Yet beneath and around this road is far older movement — the ancient tracks of Dharug people who travelled this Country long before colonisation reshaped it. The park’s rivers and creeks feed into the Hawkesbury River, a waterway that has sustained life for millennia. These waters were, and remain, places of gathering, fishing, ceremony and trade. The sandstone country itself — shaped by wind and time — holds rock art and sacred places that speak quietly to those who know how to listen. Declared a national park in 1967, Dharug National Park now protects more than 14,000 hectares of bushland. Its purpose is to conserve native flora and fauna, safeguard cultural heritage and allow the broader community to experience and learn from this place. Walking tracks now follow some of the same lines once used by Dharug ancestors — though the responsibility remains the same: to tread lightly. Dharug Country is not a place of the past. It is living Country. It continues to hold story, spirit and strength.