Mona Vale Headland (Bongin Bongin)

Mona Vale Headland is the broad sandstone platform that splits Mona Vale Beach from Basin Beach, wrapping around the sheltered notch the Traditional Owners call Bongin Bongin — the Basin. It is one of the more forgiving ocean rock platforms on the Northern Beaches: low, wide, and close to the car, which is why generations of locals learned to drummer-fish here before graduating to the bigger ledges. The washy edges grow thick green weed and cabbage, the cunjevoi-lined gutters hold drummer, and the deeper water off the pool drops onto reef that snapper and trevally cruise. It is also a declared Intertidal Protected Area, which keeps the bait beds intact and the place quietly productive year after year.

Locals work the platform on the run-out into low and the first of the run-in, when wash peels off the ledges and the gutters drain. For drummer (rock blackfish) it is float or a light running ball sinker tight to the suds, with bread berley soaked to mush and trickled into the white water. Luderick anglers float green weed and cabbage under a stemmed float along the eddy lines on the Basin side, mending line to walk the bait through the bubble trail. Spin fishers throw metals and stickbaits off the front corners at first and last light for tailor and salmon, while bream and trevally come on peeled prawn or strip bait fished light into the deeper holes once the wash settles.

Drummer and luderick are the headline acts and run hardest through autumn and winter, when good fish push onto the local ledges in numbers. Yellowfin bream are about year-round and stack up along the southern beach edge, where the platform meets the sand, and silver trevally share that water. Tailor and Australian salmon move through on the spin from autumn into early spring, chasing baitfish within casting range of the corners. Sand whiting work the wash gutters and the beach corner over the warmer months, protected eastern blue groper patrol the Basin, and the occasional snapper turns up off the deeper reef in front of the pool. Rock blackfish are 30cm with a bag of 10, luderick 27cm with a bag of 10, bream 25cm inside a combined bag of 10 with tarwhine, and sand whiting 27cm inside a shared whiting bag of 20.

Bring your own bait — the entire headland is an Intertidal Protected Area, so picking cunjevoi, worms, crabs or shellfish off the rocks is illegal, and you cannot legally smash cunje for berley either. Bread berley does the job for drummer and keeps you on the right side of the rangers. Fish the Basin side when a southerly is up and the open front when it is glassy. The platform sits a short stroll from the car, so it draws swimmers, divers and a steady weekend crowd — early starts and weekdays buy you elbow room and the better bite.

Park at the Surfview Road car park above Mona Vale Beach — pay-and-display, or free with a Northern Beaches Council resident permit — then it is a short, mostly flat walk down to the Basin and out onto the platform. Toilets and showers sit at the surf club and again at the north end of the beach. The lower platform is reachable without much scrambling, which makes it one of the friendlier rock spots to bring kids — but the Basin is not patrolled, the rock gets slick, and any child under 12 who fishes or helps you fish must wear a lifejacket too, at level 100 rather than the adult level 50S, so keep them well back from the edge and the wash zone.

This platform fishes best in light winds and a swell of about 1 to 1.5 metres — enough wash to wake the drummer without sweeping the ledges. A westerly or light northerly leaves the front clean; a fresh southerly funnels straight into the open face and is your cue to tuck around onto the sheltered Basin side. Anything over 2 metres of swell, a building groundswell, or a king tide on top of wind washes the lower ledges and shuts it down. Dawn and dusk around a low tide are the windows worth setting an alarm for.

This is an exposed ocean rock platform, and the same wash that wakes the fish has knocked anglers off these ledges. Rogue sets break onto the lower platform without warning, the sandstone is slick with weed and cunjevoi, and the run-out can sweep a slip into the Basin fast. Wearing a lifejacket is not optional here — the Northern Beaches is a declared area under the NSW Rock Fishing Safety Act 2016, and the law requires an appropriate lifejacket when you fish with rod, line or handline from naturally occurring rock exposed to ocean swell, which is precisely this platform. It covers anyone helping you and any child under 12 in your care, adults need Australian Standard AS 4758 level 50S or greater and under-12s level 100 or greater, and going without risks a $100 on-the-spot fine. Wear cleated or felt boots, never fish a rising swell, keep your back to the rock and your eyes on the sea, and never turn your back on the water to bait up.

No. Mona Vale Headland is a declared Intertidal Protected Area, which means collecting cunjevoi, worms, crabs, shellfish and all other invertebrates from the rocks is prohibited, and you cannot kill cunjevoi to berley fish. Line fishing is allowed — you just have to bring your own bait, such as bread, prawns or weed, within the recreational bag limits. You also need a NSW Recreational Fishing Fee to fish anywhere in NSW.

Yes. The Northern Beaches is a declared area under the NSW Rock Fishing Safety Act 2016, and the law requires an appropriate lifejacket when you fish with rod, line or handline from naturally occurring rock exposed to ocean swell — which is what the Mona Vale platform is. Adults need Australian Standard AS 4758 level 50S or greater, and children under 12 need level 100 or greater. It also covers anyone helping someone else fish, and anyone supervising a child who is fishing. Going without can attract a $100 on-the-spot fine.

It is best known for drummer (rock blackfish) and luderick, which peak from autumn through winter when weed grows thick on the rocks. You will also find yellowfin bream and silver trevally year-round, tailor and Australian salmon on the spin through the cooler months, sand whiting in summer, and the odd snapper off the deeper reef. Eastern blue groper are resident in the Basin, but they are protected and release-only, so they are a fish to watch rather than catch.

No. Eastern blue groper is a no-take, release-only species everywhere in NSW, and the line fishing prohibition on it has been extended to 1 March 2028. Any groper that grabs a bait — and they are common in Bongin Bongin Bay — has to go back, and none should be targeted. Handle it gently in the water and let it swim off. A NSW Recreational Fishing Fee is still required to fish the area.

It is one of the gentler ocean rock platforms on the Northern Beaches — the lower ledges are a short, mostly flat walk from the Surfview Road car park, with toilets and showers nearby. That said, it is still exposed to ocean swell and the rock gets slippery, so it suits supervised, settled-weather sessions only. Anyone fishing or helping to fish must wear a lifejacket, children under 12 included, and the Basin is not patrolled by lifeguards.