Police are hunting a man who viciously beat a stranger with a baseball bat in a carpark at Lesmurdie Falls in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Around 6.30am the woman, aged in her 50s, was walking across the carpark in Palm Terrace towards a small nature trail at the south end of the car park.

Lesmurdie Falls. Credit:Kate Hedley

She was a photographer, and she had a large camera with her at the time.

As she was walking, a stranger pulled up beside her in a small red car and got out.