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Newcastle Herald

National

Wild waves damage surf club at popular Newcastle beach

Newcastle Ethan Hamilton Bar Beach

Damage at Cooks Hill Surf Lifesaving club on Tuesday morning. Picture: Marina Neil

Wild surf has damaged part of the front of Cooks Hill Life Saving and Surf Club, as big waves continued to crunch the Newcastle coastline on Tuesday - stripping Bar Beach of sand and leaving bare rock exposed.

The damage has left the club in a jam as to how to continue providing vital rescue services until repairs can be made, with the organisation's president comparing recent coastal conditions to one of the Hunter's most infamous weather events.

Massive waves pulled loose an accessibility ramp in front of the clubhouse, as the tide lapped at the front of the building on Tuesday morning.

Club president Michael Clancy told the Newcastle Herald that damage to external structures used by the public was extensive.

He said it looked like the ramp would need to be torn down and replaced.

But Mr Clancy said some water getting inside the clubhouse had not caused any serious damage "of note".

"The biggest issue for us at the moment is our beach access for both our members and wider community who have need for wheelchair access and our emergency call-out team who are unable to launch IRBs [inflatable rescue boats] for SAR [search and rescue] operations," he said.

"The only workaround is [using] boat trailers to get to another location to launch, which takes time - something that obviously isn't what you want if people are in distress in the ocean."

Mr Clancy said the recent big seas reminded him of the Sygna storms in 1974 which "left the beach bare but the club standing on firm bedrock".

The NSW Bureau of Meteorology had a hazardous surf warning in place for Tuesday and Wednesday.

The weather agency said a deep low pressure system near New Zealand had generated a large and powerful swell along the edge of NSW.

The bureau is warning that surf conditions "may be more powerful than they appear" on Wednesday and are expected to remain hazardous for endeavours such as crossing bars and other boating activities, ocean swimming and rock fishing. Aside from the Hunter coast, the hazardous surf warning also applies to the Byron, Coffs, Macquarie, Sydney, Illawarra, Batemans and Eden coasts.

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