Type localities: Westernport, Victoria, MNHN 1437 (holotype of Platycephalus bassensis, 23.29 cm SL); Port Arthur, Tasmania, BMNH 1855.9.19.56-57 (syntypes of Platycephalus tasmanius) (Ref. 75154).

Present from Red Rock in northern New South Wales, along the southern Australian coastline as far as Lancelin in Western Australia; most common in Victoria and Tasmania.

Commercial fishery: Sand flathead are caught commercially by demersal otter trawling and Danish seining in open coastal waters, and by gillnets, haul seines, handlines and anchored longlines in bays and inlets. Commercial catches of sand flathead are taken mainly off southern New South Wales between Narooma and Eden, in eastern Bass Strait (Ref. 26996) and in several Victorian bays and inlets such as Port Phillip Bay (Ref. 26431. 125684) (where most cathes are made from April to June and from October to November). Sand flathead are a secondary commercial species in Tasmania where tiger flathead (Platycephalus richardsoni) are by far the main commercial flathead species. Although widespread in South Australia, sand flathead are not targeted but are caught incidentally on the continental shelf.

The New South Wales sand flathead catch includes an unknown proportion of northern sand flathead, Platycephalus arenarius, eastern blue-spotted flathead, P. caeruleopunctatus and yank flathead P. speculator. In Port Phillip Bay (Victoria), sand flathead comprise 50-80% of the total commercial flathead catch. The remainder consists mostly of rock flathead (P. laevigatus) and yank flathead (Ref. 26431).

Sand flathead are sold whole, or gilled and gutted, or as fillets.

Recreational fishery: In southern New South Wales and Port Phillip Bay, sand flathead is the main flathead species caught by anglers. Flathead are caught with handlines from drifting boats, jetties and shorelines and also with seine nets and gillnets. In Port Phillip Bay the recreational sand flathead catch is estimated to be more than 400 t a year, and is about 10 times that taken by commercial fishers (Ref. 27018).

In Tasmania, sand flathead are sought by anglers mostly during summer and are the most important recreational fish species in the State. A 1983 survey in Tasmania estimated that 20% of the Tasmanian population fished specifically for sand flathead that year. The popularity of sand flathead has not diminished since then. In South Australia and Western Australia, sand flathead are caught incidentally.

According to Australian Underwater Federation spearfishing records, the largest sand flathead weighed 3,100 g caught in South Australia.

Resource status: As of 1993, the resource status of sand flathead is unclear. Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmanian catches appear stable, but evidence of long-term trends is lacking. Commercial sand flathead catches in Port Phillip Bay had fallen from more than 160 t in the 1950s to less than 30 t a year in the 1980s (Ref. 26431). The reason for these lower catches may include changes in commercial fishing gear and/or target preferences in Port Phillip Bay, and market competition from trawl-caught flathead from other areas (Ref. 26431). Also Ref. 2156, 12964.