Where

Moonee Beach Nature Reserve in North Coast

Accessibility

Hard

Distance

1.6km loop

Time suggested

15 - 45min

Grade

Grade 2

What to
bring

Drinking water, hat, sunscreen

Please note

• Eastern grey kangaroos inhabit the reserve. They are powerful wild animals capable of causing serious injury if threatened, so please appreciate them from a distance.
• Remember to take binoculars in you want to birdwatch or whale watch

Look At Me Now Headland walk is a short, easy walking route with fabulous scenic views far out to sea, a lookout and beach access. Keep your fingers crossed for a breaching whale during winter and early spring. All year round, you can see eastern grey kangaroos nibbling on the grass and white-bellied sea eagles, ospreys and brahminy kites soaring above the coastline on the hunt.

Take a picnic lunch and sit between the dwarf grassy and rocky heath, which have adapted to these exposed conditions. You may spot a threatened zieria, which flowers pink and white in spring with glossy, tough leaves.

Look At Me Now Headland is an important Aboriginal site of deep significance to local Gumbaynggirr people. Preservation of this natural environment is also important to the broader community, and in 1989, over 5,000 people marched in a rally in Coffs Harbour to prevent destruction of the headland and adjacent beaches. It worked.

For directions, safety and practical information, see visitor info

Visitor info

Maps and downloads

Learn more

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. 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. 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.

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.

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.

Plants and animals protected in this park