Moonee Beach Nature Reserve

At Moonee Beach Nature Reserve, the rare and unique thrive: endangered bats roost in seaside caves, pockets of coastal rainforest thrive and pandanus trees flourish. Threatened and uncommon plant communities grow on the exposed headlands of Bare Bluff and the confidently named Look At Me Now headland. This place of magnificent scenic views and glorious coastline is the traditional homeland of the Gumbaynggirr people who value Look At Me Now Headland as an important and powerful Aboriginal heritage site.

There’s more to make the most of in this gorgeous part of NSW. Bring along your fishing rod, surfboard, diving gear or snorkel for the ocean or more sheltered estuary, which is part of Solitary Islands Marine Park and ideal for kids. Moonee is also a great place for picnicking, hiking, canoeing, birdwatching and seasonal whale watching. Keep your binoculars out for spotting white-bellied sea eagles, ospreys and brahminy kites as they hunt along the coast.

This powerful place

Look At Me Now Headland is significant to local Gumbaynggirr people as an important mythological site and a powerful place within their homeland. Evidence of everyday lives of Aboriginal heritage and its people remains in the form of middens, campsites, ceremonial sites and areas where stone axes were ground. The name Moonee comes from ‘Munim-Munim’, which is the Gumbaynggirr name for the area. It means ‘rocky’, reflecting the original importance of this place for axe-making.

Settling in

The 1880s were a big decade for newcomers to the area and the history is fascinating. From 1884, South Solitary Island signal station was operated by the Dammerel family. Only a couple of years into what would become a 40-year job, there was a collision at sea between Keilawarra and Helen Nicoll. Lone fossicker Frederick Fiddaman spent much of the 1880s searching for gold, and evidence of his toils can still be seen at Diggers Point. A century later, locals protested long and hard, successfully preventing the area becoming a site for sewage ocean outfall. Only in 1995 were Look At Me Now Headland, Diggers Point and Bare Bluff added to the reserve.

Rare and threatened

Little bent-winged bats roost in nursery caves on the headlands of Moonee Beach Nature Reserve. Producing only one offspring each year and being particularly vulnerable to disturbance by humans, they are, unsurprisingly, an endangered species. Five threatened plant species survive in the salt spray and shallow soil on the surface of the headlands. To the untrained eye these plant communities, hidden within the grass, don’t look like much. But to a botanist they are EEC (ecologically endangered communities) and their plight probably keeps some of them awake at night.

Plants, animals and landscape

The reserve protects a great variety of vegetation communities, including spinifex, eucalyptus woodland, mangrove, blackbutt forest and coastal rainforest. A wetland is located in the northern part of the reserve, to the west of Fiddamans Beach.

Native plants

The four headlands in the park support the only known wild populations of the endangered plant Zieria prostrata. Rare plant communities also occur on the headlands, including dwarf heath, bare twig rush and headland grasslands. Open swamp Melaleuca woodland occurs along the western edges of the reserve. The sandy plain between Moonee Creek and the frontal dune is dominated by wet Banksia heathland. Small stands of casuarinas and eucalypts occur next to Moonee Creek.

Native animals

Eastern grey kangaroos are found throughout the reserve and swamp wallabies frequent the coastal rainforests and heathlands. 80 bird species are known, including 10 endangered species, such as sooty and pied oyster-catchers and black-necked storks. Squirrel gliders are found in eucalypt woodland and three endangered bat species, the Queensland blossom bat, the common and the little bentwing bats, roost in coastal caves. Two rare butterflies, the Australian fritillary butterfly and the black and white tiger butterfly, reach the southern limit of their distribution in this reserve.

The park landscape: geology and landforms

The area consists of sedimentary rocks that have undergone low-grade metamorphosis, with isolated igneous intrusions. Soils are generally loose, medium or coarse quartz sands, of low nutrient status and high permeability. Diggers Point is a granite headland, unusual in this region.

History in the park

Dammerel Memorial at Dammerels Headland referred to previously as Diggers Point acknowledges the contribution of the Solitary Island lightstation this statement was queried in state of the parks file. signallers to early maritime safety. Buried headstones near the walking track behind Shelley Beach mark the graves of victims of a shipwreck in 1886. Fiddamans Goldmine and associated workings were once located at Diggers Headland, but no traces remain. Little physical evidence now remains of the sand mining and grazing which occurred prior to the nature reserve being gazetted in 1976.

© State of New South Wales through the Office of Environment and Heritage

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Walking to “Look at Me Now” headland

Photos of Moonee Beach Nature Reserve

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