The Most Beautiful Walk You Can Take on the Northern Beaches

April 16, 2026

There’s a stretch of bushland in Ingleside where something quietly extraordinary happens every day. If you love walks and you love dogs, this is for you…

Along McCowan Road, dogs that once faced council pound death rows are walked, loved, and slowly introduced to the idea that the world can be a good place. Locals know it as Doggiewood. The rest of the world knows it as Monika’s Doggie Rescue. And for 25 years, it has been doing exactly that.

Before the Internet, There Were Posters on Poles

Long before social media algorithms and online adoption platforms, Monika was doing it the old-fashioned way. Newspaper advertisements. Hand-taped posters on street poles. And something even more remarkable: small self-produced magazines, sweet, professional, and packed with information about animals looking for homes, created with a level of love and dedication that is genuinely hard to overstate.

The annual doggie calendars were part of it too. Both became a real labour of devotion, a creative and wholehearted effort to get more animals seen and more families matched. They ran for years, until printing costs simply became too high to justify and the money had to go where it was needed most. The magazines and calendars came to an end, but the mission behind them never did.

That history matters. It’s a reminder that Monika’s Doggie Rescue was built on pure determination, long before the tools that make this kind of work easier ever existed.

Meet Northern Beaches Local, Leia: One Dog from a Hundred

One visit is enough to understand what this place is about. Leia, a gentle Husky with soulful eyes, leads the way along a favourite bush path and creek. Nervous at first, she gradually relaxes into curiosity, sniffing and exploring, then suddenly breaking into pure, joyful energy and hilarious zoomies. It’s hard not to smile.

Her story is a heavy one. Leia came from a hoarding situation where more than 100 Huskies were living on a single property under terrible circumstances. Thirty of them came to Monika’s. The rest were distributed to rescue groups across Australia. What Leia and her companions found here was the opposite of what they had known: vaccinations, desexing, microchipping, ongoing vet support, and patient, consistent human kindness.

Monika has a saying that makes complete sense watching Leia find her stride on a banksia-lined bush trail in Ingleside: “Dogs choose their owners as well.” That bond doesn’t arrive all at once. It grows, step by step.

Volunteers, Wagging Tails, and a Lot of Laundry

The car park tells its own story on walk days. Volunteers arrive in waves, eager to clip on a lead and head out. Wagging tails, happy faces, and dogs who clearly know it’s walk time. For many of them, it’s the highlight of the day, right up there with treats and cuddles from the volunteers who show up for them every week.

The shelter is home to more than dogs. Cats, rabbits, and guinea pigs also find refuge here, each receiving the same standard of daily care and attention. Behind the scenes, the operation is real and relentless. Monika manages around 20 bags of laundry a day to keep the shelters clean and comfortable. The whole rescue runs entirely on community support and volunteers, and it depends on dog lovers showing up to keep its doors open.

The Best Thing You Can Do

Ask a volunteer how to help and the answer comes without hesitation: “Adoption, adoption, adoption!” Every form of support matters. Fostering, donating, volunteering. But finding an animal a forever home is the thing that changes everything.

For anyone wanting to get involved, dog walking is ad hoc and open Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 2pm, no roster needed. For those wanting a more regular commitment, rostered roles include transport, cat enrichment, feeding, laundry, events, and corporate volunteering. Gifts in wills and regular donations are deeply appreciated and keep the mission going long-term.

One Walk at a Time

As Monika puts it: ‘I’ve got to find good homes and spread the word, so that dogs get saved. And that’s what we do.’

Twenty-five years. Thousands of animals. Countless lives changed on both ends of the lead. None of it happens without the Northern Beaches community showing up, week after week, in the quiet and unglamorous ways that matter most. Every act of kindness, big or small, moves the mission forward, and for every animal here, a forever home is the dream. Leia is still waiting for hers. The shelter doors are open Tuesday to Sunday. Come for a walk. Stay for the connection. And if something stirs in you when a dog looks up with those hopeful eyes, you might just change two lives at once.