Editing Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park (section)

===Pre-European history===
[[File:Ku-ring-gai Chase - petroglyph.jpg|thumb|upright|Aboriginal [[Petroglyph|rock engraving]]]]
The name [[Kuringgai|Ku-ring-gai]] (also spelled Kuringgai, Kuring-gai, Guringai, Kuriggai) ({{IPA|mis|kuriŋɡai|}})<ref>{{cite thesis|type=M. A. thesis|title=The aboriginal language of Sydney|last=Steele|first=Jeremy Macdonald|publisher=[[Macquarie University]]|url=https://www.williamdawes.org/docs/steele_thesis.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100326044949/http://www.williamdawes.org/docs/steele_thesis.pdf |archive-date=2010-03-26 |url-status=live|date=December 2005|access-date=19 October 2021}}</ref> is an [[ethnonym]] referring to (a) an hypothesis regarding an aggregation of [[Indigenous Australians|Indigenous Australian]] peoples occupying the territory between the southern borders of the [[Gamilaraay]] and the area around Sydney (b) perhaps an historical people with its own distinctive language, located in part of that territory, or (c) people of Aboriginal origin who identify themselves as descending from the original peoples denoted by (a) or (b) and who call themselves Guringai.

Little about the original inhabitants was recorded by Europeans at contact and their communities were soon destroyed through disease and conflict with European settlers.<ref name=Plan>[https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/-/media/OEH/Corporate-Site/Documents/Parks-reserves-and-protected-areas/Parks-plans-of-management/ku-ring-gai-chase-national-park-plan-of-management-140748.pdf Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park] [[Department of Planning, Industry & Environment]]</ref>

The national park contains extensive evidence of Aboriginal occupation of the area prior to European contact, across more than 800 sites in the park.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/NationalParks/parkAboriginalHeritage.aspx?id=N0019|title=Aboriginal heritage|work=Office of Environment and Heritage|publisher=[[Government of New South Wales]]|access-date=7 May 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110319072905/http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/NationalParks/parkAboriginalHeritage.aspx?id=N0019|archive-date=19 March 2011}}</ref> These include rock engravings, cave drawings, occupation sites, paintings and stencils, axe grinding grooves and middens providing significant evidence of the way of life of the Guringai people.