14 Mile (Warroora, Ningaloo)

14 Mile is open today, and DBCA has published a notice closing the campground from Thursday 29 October 2026 for Cyclone Narelle rebuild works, with no reopening date announced. Campsites 12 to 28 were wrecked when Narelle crossed the Ningaloo coast in late March 2026 and require relocation and rebuilding; the date marks when the closure starts, and nothing DBCA has published says what follows it. What is on offer in the meantime is one of the better shore fisheries on the Warroora Coast: a lagoon-and-flats beach 41km south of Coral Bay, inside Ningaloo Marine Park and the Nyinggulu Coastal Reserves, with the reef sitting close enough in that this is flats water rather than surf. Spangled emperor and tuskfish come off the beach, queenfish and trevally work the lagoon, and fly anglers have bonefish and permit over the sand. The camp sits in a Recreation Area where line fishing is unrestricted, which is not true of everything around it.

This is flats and lagoon fishing rather than gutter fishing — the reef is close in, the water is shallow, and fish are found by covering ground rather than soaking a bait in one hole. Reef fish come off the beach itself, with spangled emperor and bluebone the ones people actually land. Queenfish and trevally work the same water and take a lure moved fast. Over the sandy flats the fly crowd chase bonefish, permit and giant herring, which is a different day out entirely. Boats and kayaks launch straight off the sand, 4WD only, because there is no ramp.

Spangled emperor and bluebone are the beach fish, queenfish and trevally the pelagic ones, and bonefish, permit and giant herring are the flats bonus — all of it recorded for the Warroora beaches and the Ningaloo lagoon generally rather than for 14 Mile by name. Golden trevally and mackerel get named for this coast without anyone pinning a species to them, so treat those as possible rather than as targets. This is the Gascoyne bioregion: the demersal mixed bag is 4, down from 5 on 1 June 2026, spangled emperor is 400mm with an individual bag of 4, and bluebone is 400mm with a bag of 2. Queenfish sit in the nearshore category with no minimum size, a bag of 8 and a category mixed bag of 16. The 5kg fillet limit once quoted for Warroora has no standing in fisheries law — the general WA possession limit applies here as anywhere else, though a pastoral lessee may still impose one as a condition of entry on its own land.

Check DBCA Park Alerts before committing to a date, because 29 October 2026 is the start of a closure with no announced end. Bookings are essential, must be made before arrival, and are released monthly under the Ningaloo Coast bookings trial, so they go quickly. Everything you bring, you take out — there are no bins, no toilets and no water, and a portable self-contained toilet approved for use in Australia is a condition of camping, with the nearest dump point about 2km away. Dogs are allowed here on a lead, which is unusual enough for a DBCA reserve to be worth knowing. Spearfishing is prohibited at 14 Mile, so leave the gidgie at home.

14 Mile is 41km south of Coral Bay, and DBCA is blunt about the road: high-clearance 4WD with low-range gears only, tyres down for the soft sand access track. There are 46 unpowered sites varying in size, surface and distance from the beach, and the campground has no facilities at all — no toilets, no drinking water, no bins, no personal hygiene facilities. A per-person camping fee applies and is paid by card at booking; there is no vehicle entry fee for Nyinggulu Coastal Reserves and no booking fee. Maximum stay is 14 nights if any night falls during WA public school holidays, and 28 nights at any other time. Campfires are permitted when conditions allow, in your own portable self-contained fire ring only, usually April to October, and you bring your own wood because collecting it is not permitted. Generators are fine, quad bikes and other off-road vehicles are not, and dogs are welcome on a lead. Nothing here is wheelchair-accessible, and it only works with kids for a family that is genuinely self-sufficient.

Ningaloo Reef sits close inshore here, so the water in front of the camp is lagoon and flats rather than open swell. That makes it fishable in conditions that would shut a west-facing surf beach, and it also makes the fishing a sight-and-stalk exercise as much as a casting one. Wind directions, swell thresholds, tide phases and water clarity are not on record for 14 Mile specifically, so read the water in front of you. December to April is extremely hot with high bushfire risk, and November to April is cyclone season on this coast, which is no abstraction given what Narelle did to the campsites. Storms are common between May and October across WA generally.

This is very remote Australia and the margin for error is thin. The radio tower in the neighbouring Nyinggulara National Park — a separate reserve from the Nyinggulu Coastal Reserves this camp sits in — was damaged by Cyclone Narelle and there are no emergency communications there, so carry a satellite messenger and tell someone the plan. There is no drinking water and no toilet on site, and the failure mode here is dehydration rather than anything dramatic — DBCA asks visitors to carry sufficient water, food, fuel, medication and first aid. The access track is soft sand and bogging on the way in or out is the routine incident, so deflate before you start rather than after. The Pelican Sanctuary Area begins about 1.6km south of the camp and all recreational fishing stops inside it. Running alongside it is a separate special purpose zone for shore-based activities, where you may fish with a line from the shore and throw a net for bait fish, and nothing else may be taken. Cyclone season is November to April, and Narelle is the reason the campground closes at the end of October.

It is open now, and DBCA's own notice says it closes from Thursday 29 October 2026 for works. Campsites 12 to 28 were significantly damaged by Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle in late March 2026 and require relocation and rebuilding. No reopening date has been published. Treat 29 October as the start of an open-ended closure rather than a works window with an end date, and check DBCA Park Alerts before you drive in case the notice changes.

Yes. The camp sits in a Recreation Area of Ningaloo Marine Park where line fishing is unrestricted. Two things do bind you: spearfishing is prohibited here, and the Pelican Sanctuary Area starts about 1.6km south, where all recreational fishing stops. Alongside the sanctuary sits a separate special purpose zone for shore-based activities, where you may fish with a line from shore and throw a net for bait fish, and no other extractive activity is allowed.

Yes, and DBCA specifies a high-clearance 4WD with low-range gears. The access track is soft sand and you should reduce tyre pressures before you start it. This is not a place to test a soft-roader or tow a road caravan into.

No. The campground has no facilities of any kind — no toilets, no drinking water, no bins and no personal hygiene facilities. You must bring a portable, self-contained toilet approved for use in Australia, and the nearest chemical toilet dump point is about 2km away. All waste, including rubbish, leaves with you.

Not as a fishing rule. The 5kg figure has circulated for years but it has no standing in fisheries law — WA's guide names a short list of special possession limits and Ningaloo is not on it. The general finfish possession limit applies here. A pastoral lessee can impose a 5kg cap as a condition of entry on its own leasehold, which is a contract term rather than something a Fisheries Officer enforces.