Life’s (still) a beach without foreign tourist influx

Australia’s lifeguards and surf lifesavers are preparing for summer season despite international border closures holding back overseas tourists.

Bondi surf lifesavers Dylan Hackers, Amber Jones and Laura Brady anticipate a summer like no other. Picture: John Feder

Surf life savers on Australia’s most well-known beach are readying themselves for a “busy” summer as Australians unable to travel abroad and possibly across state borders make up for a slump in international tourists.

As hundreds flocked to Bondi in Sydney’s east on Thursday to enjoy an un­season­ably warm day, surf club president Brent Jackson said the club was working on the presumption it would be a normal season — even though about half of the four million sunseekers who typically visited the beach were from overseas.

“We are mounting the same amounts of rosters as we normally would,” Mr Jackson said. “We still have to have enough (lifesavers) to protect the amount of people in water. We are not going to dial down assuming half as many ­people turn up.”

Although Bondi is a “special case” compared with other parts of Australia’s coast that typically attract more locals than overseas tourists, Mr Jackson said volunteer surf lifesavers still expected “beaches to be busy” with more locals expected to holiday at home this summer. “You would imagine all those people who go skiing at Christmas will go surfing at Christmas instead,” he said.

“We will contemplate what summer looks like again in Nov­ember … at this stage, we will act as if we could have a normal summer and … be prepared for it.”

Coogee and Bondi beaches were packed at the weekend, but sunseekers were “deliberately spread out” where they would normally be “clustered together” at this time of year Mr Jackson said.

Waverley Lifeguard Services and Beach Safety manager Matt du Plessis his team of professional lifeguards expected busy summer days after the temperature hit 25C on Sunday — the city’s hottest day since May 9.

“We were counting the people (on Bondi) from 10am onwards with clickers,” he said. “We peaked at about 5000, which is low but that was winter. I’m expecting … to get a lot of people coming down to the beaches.”

Waverley mayor Paula Masselos said COVID-19 safety management plans for beaches including Bondi, Tamarama and Bronte had not been finalised after the “trial run” on the weekend. “We have been a hotspot in the past and I certainly don’t want a repeat of that,” she said. “We want to make sure we don’t have to close the beaches again.”

Preparation for summer comes after Surf Life Saving Australia said 46 people drowned in Australian coastal waters between December 1 and February 29 this year — five more than the national 15-year average of 41.

SLSA chief Adam Weir said national data indicated the vast majority of people who drowned in the country were locals and only 7 per cent were international visitors in the 2018-19 period.