Dharawal National Park runs along the Woronora Plateau between the Georges River and the Illawarra Escarpment, about 45km south-west of Sydney and close enough that its northern edge is a short drive from Menangle Park. The current NSW Plan of Management, adopted in 2022, puts its area at 6,829 hectares; older sources, Wikipedia included, still list 6,508 hectares, and no NPWS page reconciles the difference. It became a national park in 2012, after nearly a century as an off-limits Sydney Water catchment — which is a large part of why the bush inside it is so undisturbed.
The nearest way in is Wedderburn, roughly a 20-minute drive: south on Wedderburn Road, right onto Minerva Road, onto Lysaght Road, then left onto Victoria Road to the Wedderburn Day Use Area car park. Three walking tracks start there. Minerva Pool and Jingga are both 2.4km return, Grade 3, and take 1–2 hours; O'Hares Creek lookout is the easier option, at 2.8km return, Grade 1, 1.5–2 hours. (Darkes Forest, near Helensburgh, is the way to Maddens Falls instead, and there's also a locked-gate fire trail off Appin Road for management access only.)
Minerva Pool is the drawcard, and it comes with a rule worth knowing before you go: it's a sacred women's place for the Aboriginal Dharawal people, and the Tharawal Local Aboriginal Land Council — the spelling NPWS itself uses — asks that only women and children enter the water. The park's own management plan illustrates the site with an artwork, The Women's Pool, by Loraine Brown and Narelle Thomas of Coomaditchie United Aboriginal Corporation. Beyond the pool, expect sandstone gorges, tall eucalypt forest and upland swamps with sediment dated back 17,000 years, plus the largest koala population in southern Sydney, concentrated right around Wedderburn.
Good to know: Minerva Pool and Jingga are Grade 3 tracks with no wheelchair access — expect uneven, sometimes steep ground, not a flat stroll. O'Hares Creek lookout (Grade 1) is the easy alternative if you're short on time or fitness. The park sits inside the Sydney Drinking Water Catchment, so stick to the marked trails.