Crews rescue 25 at shire beaches

The Eurobodalla branch of Lifeguarding Services Australia (LSA) patrolled eight popular beaches from Surf Beach to Dalmeny daily in the school holidays, on behalf of Eurobodalla Shire Council.

This is in addition to patrols undertaken by volunteer lifesavers throughout the season.

Of the 25 rescues, 14 were at Broulee, four at Malua Bay, three at Tuross Head, two at Surf Beach and one at Moruya and Narooma.

In addition, beachgoers conducted two rescues at Denham’s Beach.

LSA provided first aid 320 times on Eurobodalla beaches and took 6,215 preventative actions, which includes giving advice to people swimming outside the red and yellow flags.

CEO Stan Wall said rescues decreased this year by 40 per cent, but first aid provisions increased by 700 per cent and preventative actions increased 44 per cent.

He said the “massive increase” in first aid was due to “north-east winds, which brought significant amounts of blue bottles and an increase of stings from sting rays”.

“Lifeguarding Services Australia is proud to report that zero lives were lost on the council’s eight patrolled beaches.”

Shire recreation manager, Kim Bush, said about 140,000 people attended the eight LSA-patrolled beaches in December and January - 17,000 more than last year.

“Surf Beach was the busiest, with 39,000, followed by Tuross Head, with 23,000, and Broulee, with 21,000,” she said.

“It was an eventful season, with five joint emergency callouts, wild weather closing beaches on 10 occasions, six off-location rescues and three closures due to shark sightings.

“We also held two very successful sea-dye demonstration days to help beachgoers identify dangerous rip currents.”

Volunteers patrol on weekends and public holidays at Malua Bay and Broulee South to April 17 and Moruya’s South Head and Narooma’s Main Beach to April 25.