GIANT swells have wreaked havoc at the Hunter's beaches over the weekend, threatening surf clubs and homes, closing beaches and washing through construction sites at Newcastle Beach.
The storm-driven maelstrom in the days leading up to Saturday created six metre swells which pounded the coast, with long-time beach watchers calling it the biggest surf they'd seen in decades.
Waves spilled over the sidewalk and onto the road at Nobbys beach and spread sea foam across Newcastle beach up to the surf club and beyond.
Walkways were covered and the beach was almost entirely inaccessible.
Read more: Surfest struggles to keep competition running as storm swell batters beaches
At Redhead, a rogue wave smashed into the surf club, and at Blacksmith's Beach locals say they are getting closer and closer to a repeat of the erosion disaster unfolding at Stockton Beach.
Waves could be seen breaking across deep open water in Stockton Bight in front of the harbour entrance from Fort Scratchely.
Walls of whitewater broke along the harbour side of the Stockton breakwall, a rare occurrence.
Bureau of Meterology senior forecaster Neale Fraser said that while waves had dissipated on Sunday to about two metres they remained "deceptively hazardous" due to the amount of waterand energy behind them.
Regular beach goer Pat Gleeson, who is in the surf at sunrise every morning, said he could only get his feet wet at Merewether baths on Saturday morning, with water lapping up onto the tables near the showers.
"We've had some big seas but that was enormous," Mr Gleeson said.
Another city beach regular, who has lived in Newcastle for 20 years, said the beaches were "unrecognisable".
In Stockton, the beach was yet again battered by a massive tide that sent waves crashing over the Mitchell Street rock wall and sand dunes near Corroba Oval and into the suburb.
At the unprotected northern end of the beach, debris and water crashed through the dunes and on to Meredith and Eames streets, approaching nearby houses.
Masses of debris including half-trees and timber littered along the beach during previous storms were pushed back onto the headland. Access pathways were clogged as waves continued to reach the uppermost extremities of the beach on Saturday afternoon.
Stockton Surf Club president Paul Bernard said the club had been devastated by the ongoing and disastrous erosion of Stockton Beach.
"With each event, it gets worse," Mr Bernard said, "It's a continual erosion and then when we get the higher tides it washes the water up into the bank again, and pulls that sand that is continually crumbling down the face of the erosion cliff and drags it into the water.
"As time goes on, we lose more and more and it starts to put other areas under threat. I think what is happening in Newcastle this weekend is more in that extreme category. We couple that with big tides and we're actually at risk of inundation."
"As a surf club, we're unable to function."
Nippers racing at the Australian Championships haven't been able to participate in board training for four or five weeks, since the state titles, he said.
"Unfortunately, it is now in that disaster phase. It's not a slow creep anymore. And every time it happens, it becomes a major disaster."
Miles Niddrie, Owner and head coach at Learn To Surf Newcastle, said there were a few weeks where he was able to run surf lesson at Stockton after COVID but it didn't last long.
"The beach gets hammered by back to back swells," he said.
"The main problem with Stockton is they built that sea wall many many years ago, and that was creating a problem 15 years ago and that's just been ongoing. I was talking to Jodi McKay about it in 2005 and the sea wall, and it's just been washing away ever since. It's happened the same way in Narrabeen. It's pretty scary.
"Blacksmiths has copped a pounding as well, and is eating out the northern end of the beach ... it's probably four or five years behind where Stockton is at the moment. I've had a group at Blacksmiths called 'Bring Blacksmiths Back' and obviously there's the Stockton program as well and we're both on the same page in terms of getting sand pumping systems. Stockton needed it when they first started talking about it two years ago.
"Anything they're doing on the beach, these are all stop gap measures.,sand bagging and rock walls, they're just temporary measures to stop these assets washing away. The ocean will smash anything we put up... because we've interfered with natural processes - if you build a wall you've got to do something when the consequences go the other way."
