September 2025 (ROTM#201) Burwood Beach, NSW, Australia

Beach closed today.

Burwood Beach is situated just south of Merewether Beach in Newcastle and it was my old stomping ground when I lived in Newcastle because it had the best bodysurfing conditions. It was however, very quiet with no lifeguards so I wouldn’t recommend swimming there, particularly when it looks like this!

This picture was sent to me by Darryl Smith and it captures very large wave conditions, likely cyclonic in origin, and the whole beach is awash with breaking waves. While no-one would be swimming under these conditions, rip currents are still important, but for a different reason.

Large waves like this stir up a lot of sand and contribute to beach erosion, but if you look in the middle of the image, there is a narrow patch of turbulent water with clouds of sand heading offshore. That’s what we refer to as a ‘mega rip current’. Mega rips are associated with large storm events and are particularly common on embayed beaches like Burwood and either flow offshore against the headlands or in the middle of the beach, like this one.

So while the waves stir up the sand, mega rips can transport that sand significant distances offshore, sometimes up to 500 metres or more and are therefore contributing to beach erosion as well.