Susanna Freymark
How did local beaches fare in the latest government beach report?
The 2026 State of the Beaches report provides a rating on the quality of swimming sites in NSW.
The swim sites are graded from Very Good to Very Poor.
Water quality was monitored at 245 swim sites by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water’s Beachwatch Program and with 16 partners (usually councils) under the Beachwatch Partnership Program.
Swim sites include ocean beaches, estuaries and inland waterways.
Here’s how our local swimming spots were rated:
Evans River: Poor
Airforce Beach: Very Good
Main Beach, Evans Head: Very Good
Shark Bay: Very Good
Elm Street Bridge North, Evans River: Good
The key findings in 2026 are:
• 79% of monitored swim sites were graded Good or Very Good, meaning they were suitable for swimming most or almost all of the time.
• This is an improvement in performance from the previous year.
• 97% of the monitored ocean beaches were graded as Good or Very Good.
• Many estuarine, lake, lagoon and freshwater swimming sites did not perform as well as ocean beaches, being more susceptible to impacts from wet weather conditions.