Contract lifeguards return to beaches

Shire beaches will be patrolled over the summer holidays thanks to the Australian Lifeguard Service (ALS) and volunteers from Surf Life Saving NSW.

23 December 2019

Shire beaches will be patrolled over the summer holidays thanks to the Australian Lifeguard Service (ALS) and volunteers from Surf Life Saving NSW.

Bega Valley Shire has the longest stretch of coastline of any NSW local government area, and lifeguards provide a vital community service to help keep locals and tourists safe as they head to beaches during the holiday period.

Council’s Leisure and Recreation Manager, John Grady, said that specific surf skills, experience and resources are required to provide surf lifeguard services.

“By providing this service over many years, we’ve found that the best option is to engage professional lifeguards to complement the services of the Shire’s three volunteer surf lifesaving clubs,” Mr Grady said.

Council is grateful to the Bermagui (Horseshoe Bay), Pambula Beach and Tathra Surf Life Saving Clubs for providing patrols at those location on weekends and public holidays, some of our busiest days at the beach.

In addition, the Tathra Chamber of Commerce is funding an extension of ALS patrols at Tathra Beach until the end of February 2020.

In conjunction with the summer lifeguard program, monitoring of beach conditions will be boosted by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones at Tathra and Pambula beaches through to the end of February 2020.

ALS Manager, Brent Manieri, said that Surf Life Saving NSW will continue to collaborate with the NSW Department of Primary Industries to carry out research into marine hazard surveillance in coastal waters.

“UAVs will also provide an extra set of eyes for greater coverage of other dangers along the coastline such as rip currents and allow a faster response to incidents at these designated locations,” Mr Manieri said.

The locations and timing of the ALS service is based on a risk management approach considering advice and reports from professional lifeguards.

Beach	Patrol Dates	Days of Service	Patrol Times	Number of Lifeguards at Location
Camel Rock	26/12/2019 to 27/01/2020	7 days	9am - 5pm	2
Bermagui (Horseshoe Bay)	23/12/2019 to 27/01/2020	5 days	9am - 5pm	2
Tathra	23/12/2019 to 28/02/2020	5 days	9am - 5pm	2
Short Point	26/12/2019 to 27/01/2020	7 days	9am - 5pm	2
Bar Beach	26/12/2019 to 27/01/2020	7 days	9am - 5pm	2
Merimbula (Main Beach)	26/12/2019 to 27/01/2020	7 days	9am - 5pm	2
Pambula	23/12/2019 to 27/01/2020	5 days	9am - 5pm	2
Eden (Aslings)	21/12/2019 to 27/01/2020	7 days	9am - 5pm	2

Photograph: The Australian Lifeguard Service will be back on the Shire’s beaches this summer.

END

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