Bundeena Wharf

Bundeena Wharf is the public jetty on the Royal National Park side of Port Hacking, where the Cronulla ferry pulls in beside Horderns Beach. The wharf sits over clean sand with weed edges and tidal flow funnelling past the pylons, which holds bait and pulls in the estuary's bread-and-butter species. It earns its reputation as a reliable bream, flathead and tailor spot, but the standout is the squid, with nights where the calamari come one after another under the lights. It is a genuinely walk-on, fish-anywhere jetty, which is rare on this side of the Hacking and the reason it gets fished hard despite being a ferry ride from the nearest tackle shop. One thing the signage will tell you and the reputation will not is that the wharf marks the eastern boundary of an intertidal protected area, so you fish here, you do not gather bait here.

Locals fish the pylons and the weed-and-sand edges either side of the wharf rather than blasting long casts into the channel. Bream and trevally come on bait fished tight to the structure — peeled prawn, nippers brought in with you, or strips of fresh squid — best worked across a moving tide rather than the slack. Flathead are taken on the drop-offs with soft plastics and live or fresh baits drifted with the run-out. Squid jigs worked slowly under the wharf lights after dark are the standout, and the rising tide into dusk is the window most people target. An early-morning session can also bring surface activity from tailor and salmon chasing bait near the mouth.

Yellowfin bream are the year-round backbone, picking up through the cooler months around the pylons, at 25 cm and a bag of 10 shared with tarwhine. Dusky flathead fish the warmer half of the year on the sand edges, roughly September to April, inside a 36 to 70 cm keeper window on a bag of 5. Tailor and the odd Australian salmon push bait near the surface at first light, mostly autumn into winter — tailor 30 cm on a bag of 10. Southern calamari are the headline after dark and run more or less year-round with the better squidding from mid-winter on, carrying no size limit and a bag of 20 shared across all squid and cuttlefish. Silver trevally hang around the structure and bite well at night under the lights at 30 cm on a bag of 10 shared across the trevallies, and luderick come on through the cooler months for float anglers at 27 cm and a bag of 10. Sand whiting are taken over summer at 27 cm on a bag of 20, with the bigger models more often a wade across the nearby Bonnie Vale and Maianbar flats than a fish off the wharf itself.

It is a small public wharf shared with ferry passengers, swimmers off Horderns Beach and the occasional fisher cleaning a catch, so keep the deck clear and lines in close when the ferry is due. Bring your bait with you, because the Cabbage Tree Point Intertidal Protected Area runs west from this ferry jetty to the eastern end of Simpsons Bay Beach, and inside it crabs, snails, worms, octopus, sea urchins, anemones, pipis, cockles, mussels, oysters, nippers and cunjevoi may not be taken at all. Line fishing inside an intertidal protected area is entirely legal; it is the gathering that is not. The squid bite rewards persistence and clear water, so check clarity before committing a session to jigs, and carry a couple of jig sizes and colours because the calamari can be fussy. Fresh yakkas jigged off the wharf on a bait jig make excellent live and strip bait, and being fish rather than invertebrates they are unaffected by the closure. Honest local note: on a slow night the wharf can be dead quiet, so treat a flat session as part of the deal rather than a surprise.

The wharf is the Cronulla ferry terminus, and the heritage MV Curranulla crosses Port Hacking roughly hourly, with a longer gap around the middle of a weekday, and the trip takes about half an hour. Bookings cannot be made, so you pay on board. Driving in, there is street parking near the wharf and Horderns Beach, but it is very limited and fills fast on weekends, public holidays and through summer, and the road in runs through Royal National Park, which charges $12 per vehicle per day. A public toilet block sits by the ferry wharf, with village shops, cafes and a takeaway across the road, which makes it one of the easier spots to fish with kids — flat decking, shops and a swimming beach all within a few steps. The wharf itself is level and walk-on, so it suits less-mobile anglers far better than the rock and beach options nearby.

As a sheltered estuary jetty deep inside Port Hacking, the wharf fishes in almost any swell — it is well protected from the open ocean and stays workable when the Royal National Park headlands and Cronulla beaches are blown out. A strong southerly or westerly can put chop and wind across the deck and dirty the water, which knocks the squid bite about, so calmer evenings fish best for the jigs. Tide is the bigger lever than wind here: the run-in to the top of the tide, especially into dusk and after dark, is the prime feeding window, while the dead slack is the slowest. Heavy rain in the catchment will colour the water and slow the clear-water species for a day or two.

This is a calm, family-friendly jetty rather than a rock platform, so the risks are the small estuary ones, though they are real enough. The decking and ladders get slippery with weed, fish slime and morning dew, so watch your footing, especially at night. Oysters and barnacles coat the pylons and the rocks below, and a slip or a hand on the wrong edge will open you up, so wear shoes and keep kids back from the unfenced sides — and leave those oysters where they are, because the intertidal protected area that starts at this wharf prohibits taking them. Boat and ferry traffic is constant, so keep lines well clear of the wharf face when the Curranulla is berthing and never obstruct the ferry. Bluebottles blow into Port Hacking on summer northerlies and turn up on the lines and decking, and there is no shade on the wharf, so sun protection matters on a long session. Sutherland Shire is a declared rock-fishing area under the Rock Fishing Safety Act 2016, so a lifejacket is compulsory when you fish with rod, line or handline from naturally occurring rock exposed to ocean swell here, and the duty covers anyone helping you and any child under 12 in your care.

Yes. It is a public wharf and fishing is allowed, but it doubles as the Cronulla ferry terminus and a swimming beach, so keep the deck clear, your lines in close and never block the ferry when it is berthing. It is a reliable spot for bream, flathead, tailor, silver trevally and squid. The wharf is the eastern boundary of the Cabbage Tree Point Intertidal Protected Area, so line fishing is fine but gathering nippers, worms, crabs or shellfish is not. A NSW Recreational Fishing Fee is required to fish anywhere in NSW, including off this wharf.

Yellowfin bream year-round, dusky flathead and sand whiting in the warmer months, tailor and the odd salmon at first light, luderick through autumn and winter on weed, silver trevally around the structure, and southern calamari (squid) under the lights after dark — the squid is what the wharf is best known for.

The easiest way is the Cronulla ferry — the heritage MV Curranulla crosses Port Hacking roughly hourly, with a longer gap around the middle of a weekday, and the trip takes about half an hour. Bookings cannot be made and you pay on board. You can also drive in via Royal National Park, which charges $12 per vehicle per day, but parking near the wharf is very limited and fills quickly on weekends and through summer.

It is one of the more kid-friendly spots in the area — flat, walk-on decking, a public toilet block, shops and cafes across the road, and Horderns Beach right alongside for a swim. Watch the unfenced edges, keep them clear when the ferry is docking, and mind the oyster-covered pylons below.

Dusky flathead in NSW sit in a 36 to 70 cm slot — you can keep fish in that range up to a bag of 5, and any flathead over 70 cm must be released. The other numbers that matter off this wharf are yellowfin bream 25 cm on a bag of 10 shared with tarwhine, sand whiting 27 cm on a bag of 20, silver trevally 30 cm on a bag of 10 shared across the trevallies, luderick 27 cm on a bag of 10, and squid with no size limit on a bag of 20. A NSW Recreational Fishing Fee is required to fish here.