Sea Acres Rainforest Centre

Coastal rainforest boardwalk through one of NSW's last remaining subtropical rainforest pockets

Address 159 Pacific Drive, Port Macquarie NSW 2444

Sea Acres is a 72-hectare coastal rainforest sitting between the Pacific Ocean and Shelly Beach. The entry fee gives you access to a 1.3-kilometre elevated boardwalk that winds through the canopy, keeping you dry underfoot and at eye level with ferns, strangler figs, and the birds that live among them. Brush turkeys wander the forest floor below; overhead, rainbow lorikeets and king parrots work through the flowering trees.

The rainforest is genuinely different from the eucalypt bush that covers most of the surrounding national park. The density of green, the humidity, and the absence of fire-adapted species give it an almost tropical feel unexpected on the New South Wales coast. The interpretive centre at the entrance provides good background on the ecology.

The boardwalk takes about 45 minutes at an unhurried pace. The centre is well set up for families, and the cafe at the entrance is a reasonable stop before or after. It also connects to walking trails through the adjacent Sea Acres National Park that can extend the outing considerably.

things to do sight nature
A story
This patch of rainforest is a remnant of the subtropical forest that once blanketed the mid-north coast before European settlement. It survived because the land was too waterlogged for timber-getting — the same soils that made the rainforest impractical to clear also preserved it when everything around was felled.