Bald Hill (Australia)

Bald Hill is a hill on the Illawarra Range, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. With an elevation of approximately AMSL, Bald Hill is one of the best known and most popular lookouts in the Illawarra region providing panoramic vistas across the Illawarra escarpment and over the Illawarra plain and the Tasman Sea of the South Pacific Ocean.The nature reserve on the hill is internationally renown as a major hang gliding and paragliding site. It was on the beach below Bald Hill that Lawrence Hargrave, an Australian pioneer of flight, experimented with box kites in the early part of the 20th century. A memorial cairn dedicated to Hargrave is located at the peak of the hill near the carpark.GeographyThe hill is actually a tall headland, forming the northern end of the Illawarra escarpment. Stony Batter, just north of Bald Hill, forms a sandstone outcrop peak to the coastal ridge and has equally good views, reached by a track from Bald Hill Lookout that enters the Royal National Park to a small way in. The coastal ridge continues north, forming the Otford and Bulgo hill formations; the escarpment itself turns into the white cliffs of the Royal National Park.