Few analyses exist worldwide that have compared large-scale, representative networks of marine protected areas.  This is despite the signatory countries to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity committing to implementing MPA networks by 2012.  The New South Wales network of marine parks provides additional protections for ~33% of the state’s coastline via multiple management zones – with Sanctuary Zones providing the highest levels of protection (no-take zones covering 6% of the coastline).  Here, we report the temporal changes associated with rocky reef fish assemblages across the NSW network spanning much of the state’s 2000km coastline.  There were clear and consistent increases in the relative abundances of target species as a group and large fish over 30cm within the no-take zones compared to the fished zones within and outside of the marine parks.  The main target species on rocky reefs Chrysophrys auratus (pink snapper) showed dramatic differences among the zones.  Intriguingly, all marine parks showed clear patterns of more snapper in no-take areas, however, the sizes of the absolute effects were much larger in the north of the state than the south.  Overall, this study provides a unique and timely assessment of a significant component of Australia’s MPA network.