Red Hands Cave Walking Track

Moderate

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A short 0.6km, Grade 4 return walk (30-45 minutes) from Resolute picnic area near West Head to ochre hand-print rock art left by the Garigal people, with an option to extend onto the Aboriginal Heritage walk for another 4km.

☰ Trail details

Hide panel — map only✕

Distance

3.59 km

Est. time

55 min

Elevation gain

29 m

Route type

Out & back

Steepest stretch: +30m over ~300m (around the 3.4km mark)

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In an emergency

Call 000 for police, fire or ambulance — Australia's emergency number works even with a weak signal, and without a SIM if any carrier has coverage.

You're in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, West Head, NSW. Mobile reception in this area is not guaranteed — this is exactly why the offline map and GPS position on this page work without signal.

Tell someone your plan and expected return time before you set off. A PLB is the most reliable backup where there's no reception at all.

Fire danger today (Greater Sydney Region): MODERATE

As of 28/08/2026 — check the live NSW RFS rating before you go, this may be out of date.

Tracks & plans

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About this hike

This short return walk from the Resolute picnic area near West Head leads to a rock overhang bearing ochre hand-print art left by the Garigal people, one of the more accessible Aboriginal heritage sites in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. At just 0.6km and Grade 4 over 30-45 minutes, it's a quick add-on for anyone already at West Head for the views, but the hand stencils themselves -- made by pressing ochre-covered hands against the rock or spray-blowing pigment around them -- are a direct, tangible link to the area's long occupation before European settlement. Walkers with more time can continue from the cave onto the Aboriginal Heritage Walk, a further 4km extension that takes in additional engraving and midden sites. The walk is co-managed with input from the local Aboriginal community, and visitors are asked not to touch the art given how fragile ochre pigment is to skin oils.

Species to look for on this trail

Ancient trees and rare flora confirmed in this park. Spot one? Add it as a sighting pin below.

Styphelia fletcheriDocumented on this trail

Styphelia fletcheri

Vulnerable — NSW: Vulnerable▾

Vulnerable — NSW: Vulnerable

Styphelia fletcheri is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It is a densely-branched shrub with sharply-pointed oblong leaves, and pendent, tube-shaped white flowers in pairs in upper leaf axils.

How to spot it

Styphelia fletcheri is a densely-branched shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) and has rough-textured branchlets. Its leaves are oblong to linear and sharply pointed, 3.7–8 mm (0.15–0.31 in) long and 1.4–3.1 mm (0.055–0.122 in) wide on a petiole up to 0.3 mm (0.012 in) long. The flowers are white and pendent, arranged singly, in pairs or threes in upper leaf axils on a peduncle up to 1.5 mm (0.059 in) long, with bracteoles 1.2–1.6 mm (0.047–0.063 in) long at the bas

Family Ericaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Styphelia fletcheri

Hairy GeebungDocumented on this trail

Persoonia hirsuta

Endangered — AUS: Endangered, NSW: Endangered▾

Endangered — AUS: Endangered, NSW: Endangered

Persoonia hirsuta, commonly known as the hairy geebung or hairy persoonia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae. It is endemic to eastern New South Wales, Australia. It is a hairy, spreading to low-lying shrub with linear, lance-shaped or spatula-shaped leaves and yellow or orange flowers arranged singly or in groups of up to ten on a rachis up to 20 mm (0.79 in) long.

How to spot it

Persoonia hirsuta is a spreading to low-lying shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.3–1.5 mm (0.012–0.059 in) and has hairy branchlets leaves, flowers and fruit. The leaves are spatula-shaped to elliptic or linear to narrow oblong leaves, 5–14 mm (0.20–0.55 in) long and 0.7–5 mm (0.028–0.197 in) wide with the edges curved downwards or rolled under. The flowers are borne singly or in groups of up to ten on a rachis up to 20 mm (0.79 in) long that continues to grow into a leafy shoot after f

Family Proteaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Persoonia hirsuta

Silver-Leafed GumDocumented on this trail

Eucalyptus pulverulenta

Vulnerable — AUS: Vulnerable, NSW: Vulnerable▾

Vulnerable — AUS: Vulnerable, NSW: Vulnerable

Eucalyptus pulverulenta, commonly known as silver-leaved mountain gum, is a species of straggly tree or mallee that is endemic to southern New South Wales. It has smooth bark, egg-shaped, heart-shaped or round, sessile leaves arranged in opposite pairs, flower buds in groups of three, white flowers and cup-shaped to cylindrical fruit.

How to spot it

Eucalyptus pulverulenta is a straggly tree or mallee that typically grows to a height of 5 m (16 ft) or a tree to 9 m (30 ft), and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth, greenish to grey or brown bark, sometimes hanging in short ribbons. The crown of the tree has almost exclusively juvenile leaves that are egg-shaped to round or heart-shaped, glaucous, sessile, 15–50 mm (0.59–1.97 in) long, 20–50 mm (0.79–1.97 in) wide and arranged in opposite pairs. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in gro

Family Myrtaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Eucalyptus pulverulenta

Dillwynia tenuifoliaDocumented on this trail

Dillwynia tenuifolia

Vulnerable — NSW: Vulnerable▾

Vulnerable — NSW: Vulnerable

Dillwynia tenuifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to eastern New South Wales. It is an erect shrub with linear leaves, and orange-yellow and red flowers.

How to spot it

Dillwynia tenuifolia is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.6–1.0 m (2 ft 0 in – 3 ft 3 in), its stems covered with short curved hairs. The leaves are linear, glabrous or sometimes hairy near the tip, and 4–12 mm (0.16–0.47 in) long. The flowers are usually arranged singly in leaf axils or on the ends of branchlets on a peduncle less than 3 mm (0.12 in) long. There are bracts and bracteoles about 1 mm (0.039 in) long. The sepals are 4–5 mm (0.16–0.20 in) long and the standard pe

Family Fabaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Dillwynia tenuifolia

Tetratheca glandulosaDocumented on this trail

Tetratheca glandulosa

Vulnerable — NSW: Vulnerable▾

Vulnerable — NSW: Vulnerable

Tetratheca glandulosa, also known as the glandular pink-bell, is a species of spreading shrub in the family Elaeocarpaceae, and is endemic to eastern New South Wales. It grows up to 50cm tall and produces small, deep lilac-pink flowers with four petals. The pedicel and sepals are covered in distinctive dark red, gland-tipped hairs.

How to spot it

Glandular pink-bell is a small, spreading shrub which grows 20–50 cm (7.9–19.7 in) tall. It has a woody, tuberous root where stems branch out from close to the base. The stems are often entwined among other surrounding plants such as shrubs, grasses and sedges. The leaves are alternate or opposite or rarely in whorls of three or four. They are linear and 3–20 mm long by 1–2 mm wide with recurved (rolled under) margins and stiff, occasionally gland-tipped hairs which give a "toothed" appearance.

Family Elaeocarpaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Tetratheca glandulosa

Small Snake OrchidDocumented on this trail

Diuris pedunculata

Endangered — AUS: Endangered, NSW: Endangered▾

Endangered — AUS: Endangered, NSW: Endangered

Diuris pedunculata, commonly known as the small snake orchid, is a species of orchid which is endemic to New South Wales. It usually has two leaves at its base and one or two yellow and orange flowers with purple markings. It originally occurred in scattered populations between Tenterfield and the Hawkesbury River but because of habitat loss is now only known from the New England Tableland.

How to spot it

Real occurrence confirmed near Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park (Atlas of Living Australia, 1961) — no separate physical description was available on Wikipedia for this species, see the source link for more.

Family Orchidaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Diuris pedunculata

Coachwood

Ceratopetalum apetalum

Defines Washpool's Gondwana rainforest canopy▾

Defines Washpool's Gondwana rainforest canopy

Washpool National Park protects the world's largest stand of coachwood trees, a defining feature of the coachwood-sassafras rainforest community that characterises NSW's Gondwana Rainforests World Heritage reserves.

How to spot it

Smooth, greyish, fragrant bark marked with distinctive horizontal scars encircling the trunk; grows to around 25m (exceptional specimens to 40m) with pale pink to pinkish-brown timber that carries a caramel-like scent when cut. Common canopy associate of sassafras in cool, moist rainforest gullies.

Family Cunoniaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Ceratopetalum apetalum; NSW National Parks — Washpool National Park

Photo: Poyt448 (Peter Woodard) (Public domain) via Wikimedia Commons

Red Cedar

Toona ciliata

"Red gold" — logged to commercial extinction▾

"Red gold" — logged to commercial extinction

Colonial timber-getters called it "red gold" for its prized cabinet timber, and 19th-century logging was so intensive that large wild red cedars are now essentially commercially extinct. Surviving specimens are landmark trees — Washpool NP protects extraordinary specimens of giant red cedar, and both Border Ranges and Dorrigo name walking tracks after the species.

How to spot it

One of Australia's few native deciduous trees, dropping leaves in autumn and flushing reddish-pink new growth in spring. Long compound leaves to 90cm with 10-14 pairs of leaflets; small white tubular flowers give way to star-shaped brown seed capsules.

Family Meliaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Toona ciliata; NSW National Parks — Washpool, Border Ranges & Dorrigo National Parks

Photo: Forest & Kim Starr (CC BY 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Sydney Blue Gum

Eucalyptus saligna

Tall forest eucalypt, part of an endangered ecological community elsewhere in Sydney▾

Tall forest eucalypt, part of an endangered ecological community elsewhere in Sydney

A tall eucalypt named among the forest trees of Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, and a key component of the Sydney region's critically endangered Blue Gum High Forest ecological community on the Cumberland Plain further west.

How to spot it

A tall, straight tree (30-55m, rarely to 65m) with rough, flaky brownish bark at the base and smooth pale grey to white bark above. Lance-shaped adult leaves and white flowers in groups of seven, nine or eleven.

Family Myrtaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park; Wikipedia: Eucalyptus saligna

Blackbutt

Eucalyptus pilularis

Tall commercial-grade forest eucalypt▾

Tall commercial-grade forest eucalypt

A tall, fast-growing eucalypt named among the forest trees of Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and long valued as an important commercial timber species for its ease of regeneration.

How to spot it

Rough, finely fibrous greyish-brown bark low on the trunk, giving way to white, grey or cream smooth bark higher up - the 'black butt' contrast that names the tree. Strong V-shaped branch forks are a distinctive feature.

Family Myrtaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park; Wikipedia: Eucalyptus pilularis

Turpentine

Syncarpia glomulifera

Fire- and rot-resistant hardwood▾

Fire- and rot-resistant hardwood

A tall hardwood named among the forest trees of Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, with timber so resistant to marine borers and termites it was historically used for wharf piles.

How to spot it

Thick, deeply furrowed brown fibrous bark. Opposite, ovate-to-elliptical leaves 7-10cm long with recurved margins, and cream flowers fused into compound flowerheads of seven in spring.

Family Myrtaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park; Wikipedia: Syncarpia glomulifera

Native Rose (Sydney Boronia)

Boronia serrulata

Sandstone heath endemic▾

Sandstone heath endemic

An aromatic, citrus-family shrub endemic to the Sydney sandstone region, bearing bright pink four-petalled flowers. Wikipedia confirms it growing within Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, one of its classic heathland strongholds.

How to spot it

An erect woody shrub to about 1.5m with simple, egg-shaped, finely toothed leaves. Bright pink, cup-shaped four-petalled flowers appear August to November on glabrous branchlets, in sandy, moist heathland.

Family Rutaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Boronia serrulata

Cabbage Tree Palm

Livistona australis

Iconic Sydney-region rainforest palm▾

Iconic Sydney-region rainforest palm

A tall fan palm whose fibre was used by early European settlers to weave the 'cabbage tree hat,' a distinctive colonial-era headwear. It grows in sheltered gullies within both Ku-ring-gai Chase and Royal National Parks.

How to spot it

A palm to around 25m with dark, glossy green, fan-plaited leaves on petioles up to 2m long. Cream-white flower spikes appear in summer, with fruit ripening from red to black.

Family Arecaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park; Wikipedia: Royal National Park

Wildlife you might see on this trail

Animals confirmed in this park. Spot one? Add it as a sighting pin below.

Sugar glider

Petaurus breviceps

IUCN Least Concern - common but iconic▾

IUCN Least Concern - common but iconic

A small, highly social gliding possum found in coastal forests of eastern and northern Australia. It is omnivorous, nocturnal, and named for both its taste for sugary sap and nectar and its gliding membranes.

How to spot it

Small (24-30cm nose to tail, under 150g), blue-grey fur with a bold black stripe running from nose to mid-back and a cream belly. Travels and dens in family groups in tree hollows, and can be located at night by its bark-like yip or hiss calls and quick short glides between trees, much shorter and faster than the larger gliders.

Family Petauridae · Source: Wikipedia; IUCN Red List

Illustration: Neville Henry Cayley, 1922 (public domain) via Wikimedia Commons

Glossy Black-Cockatoo

Calyptorhynchus lathami

IUCN Vulnerable; EPBC-listed Vulnerable (nominate subspecies)▾

IUCN Vulnerable; EPBC-listed Vulnerable (nominate subspecies)

The glossy black-cockatoo is the smallest of Australia's black-cockatoos, found in open forest and woodland along the east coast from south-eastern Queensland to Mallacoota in Victoria. It feeds almost exclusively on the seeds of casuarina (she-oak) trees, leaving distinctive chewed cones scattered beneath feed trees.

How to spot it

Smaller and more compact than other black-cockatoos (46-50cm), with a large bulbous grey-brown bill. Males are chocolate-brown/black with red panels in the tail; females are duller brown with yellow flecking on the head/neck and yellow-barred tails. The call is a soft, wheezy creak, quieter than other black-cockatoos. Look for piles of chewed she-oak (Casuarina/Allocasuarina) cones on the ground under feed trees - a reliable sign they've been feeding nearby.

Family Cacatuidae · Source: Wikipedia; IUCN Red List

Photo: JJ Harrison (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Powerful owl

Ninox strenua

Vulnerable (NSW & Vic); IUCN Least Concern▾

Vulnerable (NSW & Vic); IUCN Least Concern

The powerful owl is Australia's largest owl, an apex forest predator of south-eastern Australia that feeds mostly on tree-dwelling possums and gliders. Though secure globally, it's listed as vulnerable in New South Wales and Victoria because it depends on large, hollow-bearing old-growth trees for nesting, which logging and land clearing keep removing.

How to spot it

A big owl, 45-65cm long with a wingspan over a metre, dark grey-brown above with bold white V-shaped barring below and a hawk-like long-tailed silhouette in flight. Listen at dusk for the male's slow, far-carrying double hoot ('whoo-hooo'); by day it roosts quietly in tall forest trees, sometimes with the remains of a possum cached on a branch below.

Family Strigidae · Source: Wikipedia

Photo: JJ Harrison (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Lace monitor

Varanus varius

IUCN Least Concern — common eastern forest goanna▾

IUCN Least Concern — common eastern forest goanna

The lace monitor is one of Australia's largest and most familiar goannas, a highly arboreal predator and scavenger found throughout the forests of eastern Australia from Cape York to south-eastern South Australia.

How to spot it

A big goanna (up to 2m, occasionally more) — most commonly dark grey-black with cream spots and a banded tail, though some individuals ('Bell's phase') show broad yellow-and-black bands instead. Confident and inquisitive around campsites and picnic areas, where it will readily investigate food; often seen climbing tree trunks head-first when approached, active mainly between September and May.

Family Varanidae · Source: Wikipedia

Photo: Bidgee (CC BY-SA 3.0 Australia) via Wikimedia Commons