Five of NSW's twelve aquatic reserves

Five reserves, Long Reef first, 1980

The declarations themselves are recorded in the Government Gazette, and read together the dates show the shape of it: one reserve in 1980, one in 1982, and three in a single gazette in 2002.

The five aquatic reserves on this coast, from the NSW primary industries department (DPIRD) and the declarations in the New South Wales Government Gazette.

Year and reserve	Area	Where it is	Declaration
1980 Long Reef	about 80 ha	along the shore between the Collaroy rock baths and the Long Reef surf club to the south, reaching 100 m out to sea	Gazette No 80 of 30 May 1980
1982 North (Sydney) Harbour	about 260 ha	in the north of Sydney Harbour, from North Head across to Dobroyd Head	Gazette No 46 of 26 March 1982
2002 Barrenjoey Head	about 30 ha	the headland's rocky shore, starting where Palm Beach ends in the north and finishing at the top of Station Beach, reaching 100 m out	Gazette No 65 of 22 March 2002
2002 Narrabeen Head	about 10 ha	the rock shelf from Turimetta Beach's southern end to the Narrabeen Head rock baths, reaching 100 m out	Gazette No 65 of 22 March 2002
2002 Cabbage Tree Bay	about 20 ha	the bay with its rocky shore and beaches, between Manly Beach's southern end and the north of the Shelly Beach headland	Gazette No 65 of 22 March 2002

Long Reef is the oldest aquatic reserve in NSW, declared in 1980 to protect the variety of plants, animals and habitats along its seashore, and Barrenjoey Head's rocky shore had been an Intertidal Protected Area from 1993 to 2002 before it was declared a reserve. Cabbage Tree Bay was declared a no-take aquatic reserve in 2002, to protect its marine life now and for future generations.

What each protects

NSW DPIRD's page for the reserve says Long Reef conserves the diversity of the seashore's plants, animals and habitats, and it is an important place for marine education and research, visited each year by thousands of schoolchildren and university students who come to study the marine life conserved there. The Garigal and the Gannagal (or Cannagal) people of the Eora nation are the area's traditional custodians.

Barrenjoey Head is focused on conserving the marine biodiversity of the rocky shore fringing the headland, and a mosaic of other habitats lies in and around it: rock walls and boulders below the tide line, seagrass, reef and sand. Sea urchins with long spines, seaweeds, shore animals and fish such as wrasses and hulafish are a common sight.

Narrabeen Head was declared mainly to make educational activities on its rocky shore possible, and it complements the nearby Long Reef reserve, which is also often visited by school groups.

The department's page for the reserve says Cabbage Tree Bay holds a huge diversity of marine life and a wide variety of habitats, which is what the no-take declaration of 2002 set out to protect for the future, and it is one of the most popular places in the Sydney region for snorkelling, scuba diving, swimming and underwater photography. Its small north facing bay is protected, easy to reach from the foreshore and rich in marine life, which is what draws people to it. The traditional custodians of the area are the Gayamaygal people of the Eora nation.

North Harbour holds rocky and sandy shore, reef close to land, sandy sea floor and harbour water as deep as about 20 m, the department's page says. Its sheltered coves contain seagrass, its nearshore reefs support kelp habitats used by many species including seahorses and sea dragons, and its deeper boulder habitats are home to sponges and corals in bright colours. Tropical fish turn up commonly in summer, brought south from the Great Barrier Reef on the East Australian Current. The reserve was also the site of some of the first marine specimen collecting, in the 1830s by the superintendent of the Quarantine Station, and it holds an area of critical habitat for the little penguin.

The rules, and the way through them

The current rules for these reserves are set in the Marine Estate Management (Aquatic Reserve) Notification 2025, published in NSW Government Gazette No 141 of 11 April 2025. It replaced the 2020 notification, and it has effect for 5 years.

A reserve notification sets out which activities are prohibited in each aquatic reserve, and it works together with the State's other fishing rules, such as fishing closures, bag limits and size limits. Boating, scuba diving, snorkelling and swimming can all be enjoyed in reserves; a permit may be required for scientific research and for fishing competitions; and mining is prohibited in them.

The notification's own words state the prohibition and the way through it: a person is prohibited from carrying out an activity specified in Column 2 of Schedule 1 in the aquatic reserves specified opposite in Column 1, unless two things are both true: "the relevant Ministers have given consent to the activity", and the activity "is for research, aquaculture, aquarium collecting or Aboriginal cultural fishing or for any other purpose that is consistent with the objects of the Act and the purposes of aquatic reserves". Two words it relies on are defined in the same place: to take includes to "catch or kill", to "gather or collect" and to "remove from any rock or other matter", or to attempt to do so, and marine vegetation means any plant, whether alive or dead, whole or in part, that at any time in its life must inhabit water other than fresh water.

Two activities are singled out by name: taking part in a recreational fishing competition, and taking fish or marine vegetation for research, are both prohibited at Barrenjoey Head, Cabbage Tree Bay and Narrabeen Head unless the relevant Ministers have given consent. Harming certain marine vegetation is an offence under Parts 7 and 7A of the Fisheries Management Act 1994.

What each reserve allows is then set out reserve by reserve. At Cabbage Tree Bay no fishing is permissible by any method, and no animals or marine plants, alive or dead, may be caught, collected or interfered with; boaters are asked to anchor in water deeper than 8 m at mid-tide to protect the seagrass.

At North (Sydney) Harbour, line fishing is allowed for finfish only, meaning fish with a backbone, under the State's other fishing rules, and spearfishing is prohibited. Invertebrates, cunjevoi and marine plants may not be taken or collected there, alive or dead, which rules out gathering shellfish, fishing for squid or cuttlefish, pumping for worms and picking up empty shells, and apart from finfish no marine animal or plant may be harmed. The department asks boaters to keep their anchors out of seagrass beds, to protect that fish habitat.

At Narrabeen Head, line fishing and spearfishing are allowed, and blacklip abalone, rock lobster, sea lettuce and bait weed may be collected, subject to the other NSW fishing rules and regulations. Cunjevoi and other marine invertebrates, from anemones and barnacles to sea urchins and worms, may not be collected, dead or alive; nor may empty shells, because they provide homes for living organisms, nor any marine vegetation other than sea lettuce and bait weed.

Barrenjoey Head carries the same allowances: line fishing, spearfishing and collecting blacklip abalone, rock lobster, sea lettuce and bait weed are allowed, subject to the other NSW fishing rules and regulations, and collecting cunjevoi or any marine invertebrates other than abalone and rock lobster is prohibited, as is collecting empty shells or any marine vegetation other than sea lettuce and bait weed. The department asks that illegal or suspect fishing be reported to the nearest Fisheries Office or through the Fishers Watch Phoneline on 1800 043 536.

The notification itself is published in the Government Gazette, and its Schedule 1 lists the prohibited activities reserve by reserve, with the conditions under which an activity may still be carried out. That list is the full detail for every reserve, Long Reef included.

More of this coast: the four lagoons between the beaches, and the little penguins at Manly.

The whole coast, Palm Beach to Shelly Beach