Fishing in Coolah Tops National Park

Coolah Tops sits on a basalt plateau more than 1,000 metres above sea level, roughly 30 kilometres north-east of Coolah.

The plateau acts as a divide: creeks draining its northern slopes feed the Namoi and Macquarie Rivers, eventually reaching the Murray-Darling system, while those on the southern side drain toward the Goulburn River and the Hunter coast.

That split between two distinct catchments shapes the fish fauna in ways that matter to anyone paying attention. The waters inside the park are small, high-elevation streams.

Coxs Creek is one of the named watercourses, and there is a campground at its banks — one of the few places in the park where you can sleep close to the water.

The Talbragar River has its headwaters in this country, with a falls trail that follows it through the forest.

Norfolk Island Creek, Bundella Creek, Bounty Creek, Half Moon Creek, and several other minor streams lace the plateau, most of them narrow and seasonal in character. The fish recorded here are native.

Mountain Galaxias (*Galaxias olidus*) have been found in at least five watercourses across both the Namoi-Macquarie and Hunter catchments — small, cryptic fish that hold in pools when the creeks run low or stop flowing altogether during dry spells.

These are not target species in the conventional sense; they are a sign of intact, cold-water habitat.

Because this is a NSW national park, standard NSW fishing rules apply, but check directly with NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service for any conditions specific to Coolah Tops before you go.

Access to the plateau requires driving unsealed roads, and conditions change with the seasons. The streams here reward a different kind of attention — less about what you pull out, more about reading water that drains a plateau few people bother to reach.