Incoming Tide The Entrance Channel & Potential Holiday Season Dangers - The Entrance NSW

Incoming Tide The Entrance Channel & Potential Holiday Season Dangers - The Entrance NSW

"Looks can be deceiving"

I was prompted to stop as I drove along the foreshore of The Entrance Channel, as shown in this video. What prompted me was the sound initially, then the volume of water flowing through the channel from the ocean into Tuggerah Lakes, again at The Entrance, NSW.


This area during busy holiday periods attracts tourists from all over, and it's a magnet for holiday-makers, which is fantastic—but this brings its own problems. One is a limited understanding of the dangers that are not easily defined. People have limited or no exposure to swimming in ocean water conditions. Similarly, the benign-looking lake entrance and small beach area draw people to believe they can cross the channel opening, thus leading to serious—and many times, deadly—consequences. Both incoming and outgoing tides can see huge amounts of fast-flowing water that can catch unsuspecting people very quickly.


You can see in this video that the incoming tide and volume of water flowing would take the unsuspecting person quickly in its grasp, and with the panic that ensues for those not aware of what to do, it would lead quickly to a drowning. Similarly, the outflowing tide would drive the unsuspecting local or tourist quickly out of the channel into much deeper waters, and drownings or near-drownings occur almost every holiday season.

What's the answer? How many lifeguards would it take to patrol this area? How many signs need to be posted in a myriad of languages to inform people of the dangers of swimming in this area? Even if the already posted signs are yelling loudly, "DO NOT SWIM," it does nothing to stop people swimming in these areas, both young and old... And let's not forget the Central Coast Council, which would likely be averse to ramping up advertising of these potential dangers—after all, highlighting the risks too prominently could put off tourists from visiting The Entrance during these crucial holiday periods, impacting the local economy.

I don't have an answer, unless you're serious about protecting people from themselves—and the only way this would happen is to have police stopping people from making decisions against their own best interests to put themselves in danger. And I don't think that's going to happen.

In my limited experience of this very pretty but potentially dangerous stretch of coast, no matter what you do, people will ignore the advice and do exactly what they wish—and as a result, they encounter the consequences of their own actions. In many cases, this means they lose their lives and everything else that flows from such a tragic outcome.






🎥 All video footage filmed and created by Dad's Amazing Adventures 2025©
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