February 2024 (ROTM#182) Boomerang Beach, NSW Australia

No lifeguards, big rips, ‘second best beach in Australia’.

I fully admit I could be turning into a grumpy old man, but I’m just not a fan of these ‘Best Beaches’ or ‘Top Ten’ beaches lists. One reason is that they often include quiet and secluded beaches that are now overrun by Instagrammers and therefore are not quiet and secluded anymore. The second reason is that they often choose beaches that are not patrolled be lifeguards and are often dangerous.

Tourism Australia recently named Boomerang Beach on the NSW mid-north coast as the second best beach in Australia. It’s a great beach for sure and it’s popular in the summer for holiday makers. It’s also known for it’s big, strong rip currents, which is a problem, because it does not have any lifeguards and has a history of tragic drownings in rip currents. So let’s promote more people going to it! Yay!

Told you I’m becoming grumpy. But seriously, this sort of promotion really doesn’t help and the Tourism Australia description that ‘Boomerang is known for its pristine water, ideal swimming and surfing conditions, abundance of marine life….blah blah blah’ could at least come with a safety warning about the fact there’s no lifeguards or rip currents.

I take my third year coastal class to the beach every year as part of a field trip and the rip current dye release we do is a big part of it. The beach never fails to disappoint in that regard.

The picture this month is from this article about the Top Ten beaches and you can see two fairly prominent dark gaps through the whitewater of the surf zone. Those are channelised rips and usually there’s a few more rips than that and there are also usually boundary rips running along each headland. It’s a great beach, but please be careful if you visit.

Oh…and only 1 out of the Top Ten Beaches is patrolled by lifeguards. So be careful if you visit those as well.