The NSW government has announced hundreds of kilometres of new walking tracks and a campground upgrade program as part of a major infrastructure investment in the state’s national parks.

The government will invest $257 million in 170 projects across the national parks estate, Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced last week.

The premier said it was the biggest infrastructure in the history of NSW national parks, involving 750 km of new and upgraded walking tracks, 33 campground upgrades and the delivery of 61 new and improved picnic areas.

Funding will be delivered over three years, with priority given to eco-tourism and projects that benefit the state.

“We’ve seen a huge surge in visitation during the pandemic as people rediscover the joys of the great outdoors, and we want to do everything we can to make the national park visitor experience even better,” she said in a statement.

Expanding the national parks estate

The state government last Novemenber gazetted more than 202,000 additional hectares of national parks lands, including the 153,682 hectare Narriearra Caryapundy Swamp National Park in far north western NSW.

The acquisition of Narriearra Station marked the largest purchase of private land for national parks in the State’s history, environment minister Matt Kean said.

Together with the nearby Sturt Naitional Park, Narrierra will create an near-continuous conservation area twice the size of the ACT.

The Station is linked to Burke and Wills’ doomed attempt to cross the continent in 1861 and contains two expedition campsites.