Birubi the jewel in Port's beach crown with highest visitation

A whopping 764,840 people were recorded visiting the Port's patrolled beaches - One Mile, Fingal and Birubi - during the patrol season, which ran September 29, 2018 to April 28, 2019.

Of those visitors, Birubi Beach attracted the largest amount - 311,489 people.

While the Australian Lifeguard Service, contracted to patrol the beaches by Port Stephens Council, performed 50 rescues throughout the season, fortunately there were no deaths.

Lifeguard supervisor Phil Rock said predominately fine weather and minimal swell for much of the year played an important part in the beaches' popularity this season.

"The season was a successful one for lifeguards on the Port Stephens beaches which overall saw generally quiet conditions in the water," he said.

"An exception to this was seen at Birubi where there have been consistent rips, only a small safe swimming area and large numbers of swimmers, surfers and beach users. This made for a very busy summer.

"The conditions played an important part [on success of the season] with predominately fine weather and minimal swell for much of the year.

"When there was increased swell in the area the weather was not inviting to beachgoers.

"Its been great that all of our staff are either trained or in training so that they can use the three Rescue Water Craft that are positioned at all three of the patrolled beaches."

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During the surf season, lifeguards patrol Birubi and Fingal beaches Monday to Friday and One Mile Beach seven days a week.

Volunteer surf lifesavers patrol Birubi and Fingal beaches on the weekend.

During the 2017-2018 season, 617,000 people visited the Port's three patrolled beaches, up 20 per cent from the year before. During the last season, lifeguards made 33 rescues, gave 271 first aid treatments and took more than 64,000 actions to prevent problems.

In the 2018-2019 season, lifeguards carried out 101,885 preventative actions, 239 first aid treatments and 48,282 cases of providing information and advice. The higher numbers reflect the increase in visitation this season.

January 2019 was a huge month for the Port's beaches.

Lifeguards were kept extremely busy with the total beach attendance for that month leaping by more than 100,000 people.

In 2018, 181,701 visited the Port's patrolled beaches.

In January 2019, the number of people recorded visiting the beaches was 291,285.

The highest attendance was to Birubi Point with 103,377 visitors recorded.

In a January report by the Australian Lifeguard Service, seen by the Examiner, the "significant increase" in beach visitation was attributed to the weather experienced during the holiday period.

"The month of January saw mostly bright blue skies, temperatures ranging between 20.6 - 28.2 [degrees Celsius] and some ideal surf conditions," the report stated.