Five ways to keep you and your family safe at our beaches and pools

Wollongong is expected to experience high temperatures for the next few days.

If you’re heading to our patrolled beaches or community pools to cool down, we’re urging people to please be safe and avoid tragedy in the water. This swim season has already seen an alarming number of ocean tragedies and near misses across the NSW coast, and we are urging our community to take extra caution in the water.

Council’s lifeguards and volunteer lifesavers will be on the sand to help at our 17 patrolled beaches as well as lifeguard supervision at our pools. Though, we’re reminding people to take responsibility and do the right thing in the water.

“We want people to enjoy their beach visit but it’s important to not be complacent and underestimate the surf conditions,” Lord Mayor of Wollongong Councillor Tania Brown said.

“Please don’t be a statistic and always swim between the red and yellow flags. Our lifeguards and lifesavers are on duty when these flags are up and can assist you if you need it.

“Yet, there’s other ways to take care during the expected extreme weather as well. Consider maybe visiting some of our air-conditioned facilities like our libraries, Wollongong Art Gallery or Wollongong Youth Services.

“Wherever you choose to cool down, please take care and look out for one another.”

We want everyone to return home safely from their swim, so here’s five crucial things to remember before you go for a dip.

For more information, please visit our Beaches and Pools or our Heat and Heatwaves webpages.

1. Prepare for your swim

Before leaving home, take a moment to check the surf conditions and opening hours of our patrolled beaches and community pools. You can check for any changes to pool service operations or beach conditions by visiting our Beaches and Pools webpage.

At times, we may extend patrol hours at selected beaches whereby our lifeguards will be on the beach for longer. We may also require to close beaches due to dangerous surf conditions. To get the latest updates on changed hours, follow our social media on Facebook and Instagram or on our website.

We’ve also translated key surf and swim safety information into some of our most common community languages on our website.

2. Only swim between the red and yellow flags

During patrolled beach hours, our lifeguards continually monitor the ocean conditions for community safety. They assess and identify where it is suitable to swim and will mark it with the red and yellow flags.

Remember to only swim between these flags as Council’s lifeguards and lifesavers will supervise this area and help you if you find yourself in difficulty. If the red and yellow flags are not up, please do not enter the water.

3. If in doubt, don’t go out – ask the lifeguards on duty

If you’re not familiar with the ocean or are not sure when or where to go in, save the guessing and please talk to one of our lifeguards on duty.

Council’s lifeguards can be identified by their white tops, alongside lifesavers in yellow. They are your water experts and are trained to keep you safe in the surf. This also goes the same at our community pools, please ask our lifeguards if you have any questions.

4. Know your swimming capabilities

It’s important to be realistic about your swimming capabilities. Please take responsibility and do not enter the water if you are not confident as you may be putting yourself and others at risk.

If you do find yourself in difficulty in the water, float to survive and signal for help.

5. Keep watch of children at all times

Whether at the beach or at the pools, maintain eye or hand contact at all times of children and young people. Swimming incidents can happen quickly, so it is essential to always keep watch of your children in or around the water to prevent them from happening.

You should also never swim alone or under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Other ways to cool down

Extreme heat is to be taken seriously. If our 17 patrolled beaches, 9 unpatrolled rock pools or 8 freshwater and saltwater pools aren’t your preferred choice to beat the heat, here’s some other air-conditioned places you can go.

• Visit one of Wollongong Libraries, we have 7 branches to choose from.
• Check out the latest Art Prize and other exhibitions at Wollongong Art Gallery.
• Pop into our Wollongong Youth Services Centre.
• You could visit friends or family with cooling in their home or your local shopping centre.

You can also visit our website for more information on Heat and Heatwaves.