Stockton Beach has been battered by a massive tide that sent waves crashing over the Mitchell Street rock wall, and sand dunes near Corroba Oval, inundating Meredith Street with water and debris, reaching as far as Fullerton Street - the only access road into the peninsula suburb.
Meredith Street resident Tami Bruce was walking her dogs around 8.30am when she was hit by a freak wave that pulled her under the water and pushed her back around 15 metres and through a fence, leaving her battered and bruised.
"I had my eyes open and I was trying to get a hand or a foot down so that I could get my head up and see where my dogs were," Ms Bruce said, recounting the ordeal. She said the wave pulled her under the water, but luckily pushed her back toward the beach entrance and not out to sea.
"We were just walking by and I was looking out to sea because the waves were breaking out to sea as well and all of a sudden I noticed this wave coming at us and I called the dogs really quickly - I could see it coming fast - and then all of a sudden, it just took me and I was completely underwater," Ms Bruce said.
Swells between seven and 10 ft were recorded across the city's beaches Saturday morning, but residents say as the high tide approached around 10am, the waves breaking at Stockton could easily have reached between 12 and 15ft.
The huge south-south-easterly primary swell has sent waves breaking over the Mitchell Street rock wall, while at the unprotected northern end of the beach, debris and water has crashed through the dunes and on to Meredith and Eames streets, approaching nearby houses.
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."
Mr Bernard was in Queensland Saturday with local juniors and masters competing at the Australian Surf Lifesaving Championships, and said that the club had been devastated by the loss of the beach.
"As a surf club, we're unable to function," he said, "We've got numerous members looking to compete at the Australian Championships, and they've trained all summer and, some of the older ones have been training all winter and all summer to get to these major carnivals, and they're unable to put their surf boat in at Stockton.
"We've got Nippers here today racing and they haven't had board training for four or five weeks, since the state titles, and they're here at the Australian Championships and they haven't been able to come down and paddle their boards at Stockton.
"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."
Elsewhere, massive waves are breaking over the city's beaches, leaving debris and foam scattered across Newcastle Beach as the tide reached its peak.
