SWIMMERS are being urged to steer clear of the breakwall at Town Beach because of safety concerns.
Port Macquarie-Hastings Council will be using a new temporary sign over the summer months advising swimmers not to swim in the area. The new sign was used for the first time over the busy Ironman weekend.
While temporary signage has been used in the past – and while there are three permanent signs at the break wall warning of dangerous currents – the council’s senior lifeguard co-ordinator Grant Hudson said they were often ignored. The new sign is larger, brighter and carries a rescue tube.
Mr Hudson said there had been a significant increase this season in the number of people swimming at the northern end of Town Beach near the breakwall.
“It is luck more than anything else that has prevented many people from getting into trouble,” he said.
While the northern end of the beach is popular with board riders, it is considered unsafe for swimming because of strong currents, bigger and more powerful waves and submerged rocks.
Mr Hudson said people swimming near the break wall were also endangering the lives of those people doing the right thing because they distract the lifeguards’ attention away from the flagged area.
“Every time a swimmer enters the water near that dangerous stretch of beach a lifeguard needs to approach and advise the swimmer that they are entering the water in a dangerous area,” Mr Hudson said.
“Most of the time people take it very well and move up towards the flagged area, which is great because we achieve the desired result. But these swimmers are really distracting the lifeguards’ attention away from the supervised swimming area. Lifeguards are always watching the flagged area but it’s a case of two sets of eyes being better than one.”
Mr Hudson said the sign would be placed near the water’s edge on a daily basis by patrolling lifeguards to help people make a better informed decision about where to swim. He said the rescue equipment would allow for quicker response times given the lifeguard tower at Town Beach is approximately 350 metres away.
