Camping at Mullaway

THIS is one very quiet little camping destination and, while it's only a dot on the map, it's the sort of place that is attractive to anglers. Take the name for starters: ‘Mullaway’. Isn't that the name for our jewie*, or jewfish? When I heard about this location I decided that if that name wasn’t a pointer to the sort of fish I could expect in the area, I'd eat my fishing hat!

GETTING THERE

Situated between Corindi and Woolgoolga on the New South Wales north coast, the little town of Mullaway offers a combination of beach, headland, and boat fishing. There’s a quite prominent sign proudly displaying the word ‘Mullaway’ on the eastern side of the Pacific Highway about 7km north of Woolgoolga. The turn-off also goes to Arrawarra Headland, which is a very easy-on-the-eyes sort of place as well.

Upon your arrival at Mulloway, your first glance will reveal a beaut headland (Arrawarra Headland is one of the features of the Mullaway area) and this outcrop of rock offers exceptional views to both north and south and of the Solitary Islands to the east.

CAMPING

The Mullaway Beachside Tourist Park (ph. (02) 6654 1172) is situated off Darkum Road at Mullaway. The caravan park is well sited among a host of shady trees, and as I walked around the camping area for the first time I knew that I’d enjoy myself there. It wasn't crowded and just the sort of place I love.

Trees were a great feature of the park and all sites were quite large, and as a boat owner I would not be disadvantaged either. There's plenty of room to stretch out, and if you require a powered site that's no trouble either. A neat fish cleaning table with wash down hose is set up right where it should be - where the beach access track comes into the caravan park.

The local infrastructure is pretty modest – just a store, a bait shop and a kiosk. But Woolgoolga just down the road to the south is well set up with plenty of shops and take away food outlets. Coffs Harbour is not far either, and it hosts one of the largest tackle stores in the southern hemisphere. Check it out if you’re in the area, because it's a beauty. If you can't find an impulse buy to tempt your credit card at that place, I'd be very surprised.

THE FISHING

There’s some terrific beach fishing to had on the large expanse of beach south of Mullaway, although it's strictly walk in, walk out. Cars aren’t allowed, but I don’t think this is a bad thing. There is nothing wrong with a beach where a family can play, fish, and swim in safety without having to look out for cars all the time.

Along this great expanse of beach, which stretches right down to Woolgoolga, worms are easily caught by those folk who have mastered the art of beach worming. Worms are also on sale in the area, and let's face it - they make a nifty bait for just about any species of fish in the region, bar tailor (although the next tailor I see taken on a beach worm at Fraser Island certainly won't be the last). Jewfish love beach worms, and the larger the worm threaded along the hook and up the line, the better.

The headland looks promising for the rock angler, but there aren’t many easy low ledges which we rock anglers love to perch on while working the washes. On the right sort of day the rocks are quite fishable, but I see the best opportunities arising (for the angler who likes to punt a bit of tackle against some quality fish to eat) where gutters form against the headland. The idea would be to work these gutters and holes on a rising tide for fish such as bream, whiting, dart. And jew, of course!

The boat angler is catered for as well at Mullaway. On the northern side of Arrawarra Headland there’s a facility for beach launching, but there is no formed boat ramp as such; the boatie launches straight into the surf when the tide is moving toward the full state. My photo is of the launching area at low tide, and at that stage it would be hard to launch anything much larger than a four-metre tinny.

These small obstacles aside, be advised that the nearby offshore reefs and areas of broken ground quite close in do make offshore fishing well worth the effort. The Solitary Islands are not far offshore and offer very good reef fishing at times. I have a friend who has fished there quite a lot, and snapper are commonly caught with the much sought-after mackerel being taken during late Summer.

[*The common name for jewfish is usually spelt ‘mulloway’, but that’s close enough. – Ed.]