The Pelican Holiday Park

The Pelican Holiday Park runs along Giinagay Way on the Nambucca River at Nambucca Heads, a waterfront park where the riverfront cabins and sites look straight down the estuary towards the breakwater. Fishing comes up constantly in guest feedback, along with the river views, clean amenities and the general dog friendly character of the place. It is a classic family holiday park: bring the boat or the tinnie, park the van on a waterside site or take a cabin, and spend the week between river and beach. Nambucca Heads itself is a low-key alternative to the bigger coast towns, with the VWall boardwalk and the headland doing the sightseeing work.

Dogs at the park

Per the park's own site, pets are welcome all year round and are listed as a feature across the accommodation range, including the riverfront cabins and sites. That is a broader scope than most parks offer, where dogs are usually sites-only, but the fetched pages do not publish detailed fee or restriction terms, so confirm the specifics when booking: any breed or size conditions, whether dogs can be left in cabins, and the on-ground lead rules.

Year round acceptance is the headline, because many coastal parks shut pets out in the summer peak, and this one does not.

The grounds run to the river bank without a fence line, so dogs stay on lead around the park. The tide is the local knowledge that matters: at low tide the shallow sandbanks open in front of the park for an ankle-deep dog run, while the deeper channel near the boat ramp runs hard currents at high tide.

Ask at reception which cabins have wider decks facing the grass rather than the walkway, because that decides whether the dog can sit out the evening with you.

The waterfront setting is the park's whole pitch, and it comes with the usual river-side reality: evening mosquitos in the warm months and the tide governing when the flats are walkable.

Make a day of it

The estuary foreshore and the boardwalk make morning and evening walks with the dog part of the routine rather than a chore, and the beaches either side of the river have council designated off lead areas. If you want to compare options on the same stretch of coast, Petlyn by the Sea at Sawtell is a dog friendly house stay to the north, or browse more dog friendly stays in NSW across the mid north coast.