May 2019 (ROTM#125) Lighthouse Beach, NSW, Australia

There are several 'Lighthouse Beaches' in Australia, just as there are about 14 'Shelly Beaches', but this Lighthouse Beach is situated in the Seal Rocks region of the mid-north coast of NSW. It's considered one of the highest wave energy beaches in NSW and has rather a lot of rip currents. At least on this day it did.

All the dark channels in the surf zone (area where waves are breaking - the whitewater) are either deep rip current channels heading offshore or alongshore currents feeding the rips. You can also see prominent rip current embayments along the shoreline, particularly further down the beach.

There are camping grounds nearby and some accommodation in the lighthouse keepers cottages so it's not completely remote, but there's also no flags or lifeguards. So where would you swim?  Somewhere else hopefully unless you're an experienced surfer using the rips to get out the back! There's not a lot of safe places to swim in this picture.

This vantage point is always where I finish the first day of my 3rd year coastal course fieldtrip at UNSW Sydney! It never fails to impress.

Not a heck of a lot of safe swimming spots on this beach.