Dunbogan Reserve Fishing Platform

Port Macquarie-Hastings Council built an accessible fishing platform on the Camden Haven Inlet at Dunbogan Reserve, beside the short breakwall at the mouth of Gogleys Creek. It comes with what most fishing spots never offer: a fish cleaning table, toilets, a playground, barbecues and parking metres away. The inlet in front of it carries the whole Camden Haven estuary run — bream, blackfish, flathead and whiting — and luderick numbers keep the float crowd happy most winters. It is the spot on this coast where a wheelchair user, a toddler and a serious luderick angler can all fish together.

Bream are the everyday fish: lightly weighted prawn, mullet strip or small soft plastics cast along the edge of the channel and the Gogleys Creek wall. Luderick anglers drift weed baits under a float along the rock edge on the tide. Flathead sit on the sandy drop-offs and come to plastics or a live poddy mullet worked slowly along the bottom, and whiting take nippers or worms on a light running sinker over the sand in summer. The odd mulloway cruises the channel at night on the tide change.

Bream are reliable year-round and best through winter. Luderick are a cool-season highlight across the Camden Haven. Dusky flathead and sand whiting carry the warm months, roughly October or November through April. Mulloway are an occasional night bonus in the inlet, where metre-plus fish have been reported around a winter full moon.

The fish-cleaning table is there to be used, so clean catches on it rather than on the platform. Bream are 25 cm with a combined bag of 10 including tarwhine; dusky flathead a 36–70 cm slot with a bag of five; sand whiting 27 cm with a combined whiting bag of 20; luderick 27 cm and 10; mulloway 70 cm and one. DPIRD closes the lower inlet to most nets, with the upstream boundary at the public baths and Gogleys Creek, so check its Camden Haven closure page before bringing anything but a landing net. A rising tide in the late afternoon is the easiest family session.

Dunbogan Reserve is on Camden Head Road, Dunbogan, a few minutes over the bridge from Laurieton. There is parking, toilets, a playground, picnic tables and barbecues, and the platform is built for wheelchair access; Gogleys boat ramp and its floating pontoon are next door, so expect trailers on weekends. The platform sits beside the Dunbogan Jubilee Community Hall. This is one of the few fishing spots in the region suited to wheelchairs and prams.

Sheltered estuary water that fishes in most weather; a strong north-easterly chops up the inlet in front of the platform. Tide is the main driver: the run-in brings clean water for luderick and bream, and the change of tide suits flathead and mulloway. Heavy rain in the Camden Haven catchment colours the inlet and slows things for a few days.

The platform is built for safe access, but the channel in front of it is deep and the tide runs hard on the ebb, so keep a close eye on small children on the platform. Boats come and go from the ramp and pontoon next door — keep casts clear of launching boats and the channel. Watch for hooks and fish spines on the deck, and wear sun protection.

It's at Dunbogan Reserve on Camden Head Road, Dunbogan, on the Camden Haven Inlet beside the breakwall at the entrance to Gogleys Creek and next to the Dunbogan Jubilee Community Hall. Gogleys boat ramp is next door.

Yes. It is a council-built accessible fishing platform, with parking, toilets, a fish-cleaning table, picnic tables and a playground in the reserve.

Bream, luderick, dusky flathead and sand whiting are the main catches from the platform, with the odd mulloway at night. A NSW Recreational Fishing Fee receipt is needed unless you're exempt.