Hornsby is one of the best suburbs to live with a family in Metro Sydney. Especially if you’re a bushwalking, outdoorsy family. Well, we are, and we kind of accidentally ended up in Hornsby after moving to Sydney from the other end of the world. I haven’t known much about the Sydney suburbs, and spending these two years in Hornsby made me realize what a good choice it was.
Sure, Hornsby doesn’t have ocean beaches, but those are not far either. However, Hornsby offers a lot to do with kids locally: forest walks, waterfalls and creeks, a botanic garden and some of the coolest nature themed playgrounds in Sydney. Nature is close, right at your doorstep.
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If you live here, you know that crossing the street often means suddenly being in another suburb, because there’s a lot of them and they blend in with each other. So the places and activities I brought you in this post are either in Hornsby, or in some of the nearby suburbs which are still 5-15 minutes drive away, like Waitara, Berowra, Galston or Bobbin Head in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.
Best outdoorsy things to do with kids in Hornsby
I’ve spent two busy years here with a toddler, then a preschooler. We explored every bushwalk that’s suitable to do with a young kid, every playground and park, and I dare say: pretty much everything outdoors. So let’s see our favorites.
Find a new-to-you playground in Hornsby
- Best for older kids: Storey Park and Willow Park
- Best for toddlers: Beatrice Thomson Park and Holman Park
- Best for BBQ: Storey Park and Willow Park
I’ll be honest: I prefer a bushwalk to a playground any given time. But even I have to admit that Hornsby has lovely playgrounds with lots of green, sulphur-crested cockatoos and galahs, and the occasional cheeky kookaburra. So go and find one you’ve never been before.
I doubt Storey Park is new to anyone, because it’s probably the most popular playground in Hornsby – and right so. (And as embarrassing as it is, I had to realize it’s not in Hornsby, but in Asquith. Sorry, I still think of it as the biggest playground in Hornsby.) It’s fenced and big enough, offering a variety of play equipment for kids of any age. There’s a separate area for babies and toddlers, and there’s a huge (really huge!) climbing tower and slides for the older kids. It’s a good place to meet with school friends after school.
The playground in Beatrice Thomson Park is a hidden gem. It’s on the corner of Water Street and Albert Street, and it seems to me that only a handful of families know about it. It’s not very large, but fully fenced and offers a specious sheltered picnic area. The equipment is suitable for both younger and older kids (though not as thrilling as the huge climbing tower in Storey Park): a climbing structure with two slides and quite a few imaginative play spaces; a seesaw and a few swings, and a small rope pyramid.
Ginger Meggs Park playground is right at the trailhead of the Blue Gum Walk, and also the much shorter Ginger Meggs loop. This fully fenced grassy playground is large, has some sheltered picnic tables and even a bike track for small kids. The play equipment includes a climbing structure with slides, a spring rider, a spinner, a spider web climbing net, monkey bars, swings and a rope pyramid. It’s in the last street and almost in the forest, which makes it peaceful and barely known.
I know Holman Park playground because once we lived just across the road from it and I loved observing the cockatoos on its green lawn each morning. It’s along Sherbrook Road, which is a surprisingly busy one, but it’s fully fenced. The play equipment is rather for younger kids, with a smaller climbing structure and slide, a small boat, a spinner and swings. But there’s a huge grassy area, a sheltered picnic table and a bike path that circles the play area. There’s a few hundred meters walking path in Neal Park, just across the street, if you’re looking for some wilder feel.
Willow Park playground is another one we often walked to. It’s also fully fenced and quite a large one, with a variety of play equipment both for toddlers and older kids. You find sheltered picnic tables, electric BBQs, toilets, and the playground is partly shaded.
Hornsby Park playground is in the city center and is surrounded by beautiful trees and greenery. It has an adorable toddler play space, with a toy car, musical features and a four-person swing rider. There’s a set of swings a few steps below the main play area, and you find sheltered picnic tables and BBQs, too. It’s a great starting point for shorter bushwalks into Old Mans Valley.
Lessing Street playground is tucked among quiet residential streets, and it’s another one that’s ideal for toddlers and preschoolers. It has two climbing structures with slides, a very small one and a slightly bigger one, a small spinner and different balancing structures made of logs. I appreciate these obstacle courses made of natural materials, mostly logs and rocks, on the playgrounds, and my little one enjoys them very much. There’s also a large open space to run around, and you find some sheltered picnic tables.
And then there’s Reddy Park, with the only flying fox in Hornsby…
Have fun on the flying fox in Reddy Park
Reddy Park has one of the least known and smallest playgrounds in Hornsby. Well, the playground is actually not that small, it’s a nice grassy area with huge trees and a fence, right along Pretoria Parade, but there’s not too much play equipment – which makes the Reddy Park playground really delightful.
Because its main attraction is a flying fox where you rarely need to queue, and it’s relatively high which makes it more fun for older kids. If you have a young one who has never tried a flying fox before, maybe don’t start with this one. There’s a set of swings and a small climbing tower, and that’s it.
But you can also enjoy the shaded picnic tables and the short walking trails through a Turpentine forest.
Have a BBQ lunch in one of the lovely parks
Because it’s such an Australian thing to do, anyway, and the weather is suitable for a BBQ any time of the year. (On any day when it’s not pouring rain, I mean.)
One of the playgrounds is a good choice for a BBQ, because the kids can have fun in the meantime. Storey Park is a popular one, but Hornsby Park playground, Willow Park playground and the Waitara Oval playground in Waitara (just across the corner from Willow Park) also have free electric BBQs.
James Park has a very small playground area, but it has a ping pong table, basketball court, a huge grassy field and sheltered picnic areas with BBQs.
Marvel at the flowers in Lisgar Gardens
Lisgar Gardens is a tiny, beautiful hillside garden in Hornsby, and it actually ends in the forest where you can continue your walk in a lovely gully. Lisgar Garden is particularly known for its beautiful camellias, and it has hundreds of different varieties, but you find other native and exotic plants, as well. There’s a fishpond and a few tiny waterfalls.
Don’t expect a huge garden though. I usually find I want to walk a bit more, so I continue in the Florence Cotton Reserve. This is the path that takes you down into the gully and through woodland and smaller patches of rainforest. It’s altogether a 2 km loop, so still a lovely, short walk, with quite some series of steps to climb though. Check it out on the map here.
Complete the Blue Gum Walk
This fabulous loop is not only one of our favorite local walks, but it’s among the most spectacular forest walks we’ve ever found in Sydney! Yet it’s barely-known, peaceful even on the weekends, and it feels wild and remote.
This is where I take my son for a soothing walk after school. We don’t necessarily do the full loop each time, but even walking down to Waitara Creek is a nice afternoon adventure. But it’s a great family-friendly hike for the weekend, as well.
The Blue Gum Forest walk is very picturesque from the first step to the last. It leads you among majestic Blue Gum trees, through a cool gully with lush ferns, huge rock overhangs and rushing Waitara and Berowra Creeks.
The Blue Gum High Forest only occurs in the Sydney area and it has become a rarity these days. Hornsby’s Blue Gum Walk introduces you to one of the last remaining forests of this kind, which is home to flying foxes, king parrots, black cockatoos, brushtailed possums, sugar gliders, short beaked echidnas, owls and frogmouths. Our experience is that leeches also love this trail in wet weather, so I prefer wearing my high ankle boots in wet conditions.
You can start the track either from Hornsby Park (at the end of Rosemead Road) or Ginger Meggs Park. Parking is easy and unrestricted on the streets at each trailhead, and you’ll get into the dense forest right away.
If you start from Hornsby Park, you’ll soon reach the Fishponds, which is a lovely lookout over Berowra Creek. From this point you’ll follow the creek, then cross it and ascend back through lush ferns and pretty forest. Part of the trail leads on a ridge where you can look over the seemingly endless forest (and totally forget that you’re still in Sydney).
Though it’s a forest walk, don’t assume it’s flat, because it’s far from that. It has quite a few ups and downs, and a few particularly steep ones. It’s not a challenging hike, but a real hike nevertheless, and I recommend wearing comfortable clothes and shoes with good grip.
Wildflowers are wonderful along the walk in spring. There are wattles trees, different kinds of spider flowers and boronia – and a lot more I can’t recognize.
Blue Gum Forest hiking info:
- Trailhead: Hornsby Park or Ginger Meggs Park
- Length: 4.2 km loop
- Difficulty: medium
- See the Blue Gum Forest walk on a trail map here.
Do a short bushwalk in Dog Pound Creek Conservation Reserve
This is an easy walk (only 1 km one-way!) right off the street, and it connects Hornsby with Westleigh. It might sound like an urban park walk, but it’s not. It delivers an atmosphere of being in a remote, lush rainforest, with plenty of different ferns and an adorable, cascading waterfall (that you can only properly see if you go off track). Being such a short walk it fits into any day you want to spend some time outdoors.
It’s not a loop, but a one-way walk that you can start at either end. Whichever you choose you’ll start with stairs that take you down: from the end of Valley Road in Hornsby or from Warrigal Drive in Westleigh. We normally walk from Hornsby, so that’s what I’ll describe.
From Valley Road you take the wooden staircase down to Waitara Creek, and you cross it on the stepping logs. There’s a trail on the map that runs along this creek, but it’s unofficial and we quickly turned back, because it’s very overgrown. But it offers a few water access points in the beginning.
But to get to the Dog Pound Creek Conservation Reserve you need to take the wide fire trail. As you walk on this wide section, watch out for Wirrega Falls. You’ll hear it first, and if you also want to see it, a short detour is required on a narrow, steep and definitely unofficial path. I guess it doesn’t have much water during dry spells, but when we visited after a period of heavy rains, it looked fabulous and sounded roaring!
Then you cross Larool Creek. There are no stepping stones, but the water level is usually low enough for a safe crossing. After this the trail gets narrower and you find yourself in the most beautiful area of the forest (this is actually the Dog Pound Creek Conservation Reserve). The forest is dense, you see lush ferns everywhere and you look up to tall Blue Gum trees. It’s another one of those areas where you can find this rare Blue Gum High Forest.
It’s a short walk, but there are some ups and downs and stairs on the way. It can also get muddy in wet conditions. Wear proper hiking shoes.
Dog Pound Creek Conservation Reserve hiking info:
- Trailhead: at the end of Valley Road in Hornsby or from Warrigal Drive in Westleigh
- Length: 1.1 km one-way
- Difficulty: easy
- See the Dog Pound Creek Conservation Reserve walking track on a trail map here.
More things to do outdoors with kids near Hornsby
If you’re willing to drive a few more minutes, you have countless options for awesome outdoorsy activities in the Hornsby area. Let’s see:
Go canoeing at Bobbin Head or Berowra Creek
Bobbin Head in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is one of the very best places to go paddling in Sydney for beginners, and it’s just about a 15 minutes drive from Hornsby. There’s also a large waterfront picnic ground, a huge (and fenced) nature themed playground, several bushwalks, boat rentals and a convenient canoe launch area.
Cockle Creek is the easiest canoe / kayak route you’ll ever find, but it gets too shallow at low tide. Cowan Creek is still quite easy, and it offers more route options and longer distances. I’ve written a Sydney canoeing guide for beginners, and you can read about all of these routes there in detail.
The same is true for the other favorite canoe launch spot of our family: Dusthole Bay at Berowra Waters in the Berowra Valley National Park, about 20 minutes drive from Hornsby. Here you also find a cool playground (the fenced Dusthole Bay playground) and free BBQs, picnic tables and a café.
Drive a large truck at Yallambee Road Park playground in Berowra
Berowra is only 15 minutes drive from Hornsby, and we found several playgrounds there which became our favorite in the Hornsby area. If you ask the best, I’ll recommend Yallambee Road Park and its playground. It has such an amazing variety of play equipment, yet it’s on a quiet corner of a residential area and mostly only the local families know about it.
The highlights are the huge tunnel slide with different climbing structures (several climbing walls and nets) and the large, almost life-size play truck which was an instant hit for my boy. But there are other things which are not usual on just any playground, like the spinning rope pyramid or the cute balancing mushrooms.
You can also enjoy the open grassy area and a shaded picnic table. Sadly, there’s no toilet though.
Have fun at the Warrina Street Oval playground in Berowra
This is one of the newest playgrounds in Berowra, and it’s impressive! It’s spacious, has a variety of play areas and equipment, has shaded spaces and lots of shaded picnic tables.
Kids of any age can enjoy the different climbing structures with slides, the cute toy car, the tiny trampolines, the water play area and any type of swing you could imagine. There’s also a biking path around the play areas for kids, and some monkey bars and climbing towers are challenging enough for older kids, too.
Walk in the Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Gardens
The Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Gardens is a public garden, only 15 minutes drive from Hornsby. It’s home to lots of native species and offers walks of different length and difficulty. The Senses Track is the easiest (and even pram-friendly), but our favorite is the Mueller Track, a lovely path inside a gully.
Lambert’s Clearing offers a large grassy lawn, electric BBQs and a cute playground, enjoyable for young kids. The Banks Track is another very short one that also passes a pond where you can spot frogs or turtles.
Walk at the Crosslands Salt Marsh, Hornsby Heights
The Crosslands Salt Marsh has an easy, interpretive track called Place of Winds. It’s about 1 km long and runs along a narrow section of Berowra Creek that becomes a marsh at low tide. You can take a close look at a mangrove forest along the way, and wooden viewing platforms offer views of the creek. If you’d like to make it a longer bushwalk, continue along Calna Creek, which is slightly more challenging.
The Crossland Reserve also has a huge grassy lawn, picnic shelters, BBQs and a small playground – rather just a pair of swings and a flying fox. But kids can play in the creek, too, which is a never ending source of entertainment.
Visit McKell Park in Brooklyn
Brooklyn (not the one you think of first) is about half an hour drive from Hornsby on the Pacific Motorway. It’s rather a half day trip than a quick getaway after school.
McKell Park is our favorite place there. It overlooks the Hawkesbury River and has everything that makes family time delightful outdoors: picnic shelters and electric BBQs, an exciting (and fenced) playground, a waterfront walkway with pretty bushland views and boating opportunities.
Help inspire year-long family time outside with my unique Aussie adventure guide made just for you.
- 130 fun activities to get your family outside
- printables: different nature scavenger hunts and challenges
- book recommendations for outdoor families
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