Shocking scenes at popular Sydney beach

Sydneysiders looking to escape Friday’s heat have been warned to avoid several popular beaches and oceans pools due to the threat of pollution and sewerage contamination due to recent storms and heavy rains.

Swimming sites including the Balmoral baths, Hayes Street Beach, and Clontarf Pool in the city’s north, Balmain’s Dawn Fraser Pools, and Parsley Bay, Murray Rose Pool (also known as Redleaf Pool), and Rose Bay Beach in the Eastern Suburbs are all not recommended for swimming, according to the most recent update from the NSW government’s Beachwatch.

Images taken at Rose Bay show debris strewn across the sand and in the water.

Samples are tested for enterococci as an indicator for faecal contamination.

Exposure to the bacteria cause infection which can lead to nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and fever.

Other locations such as Bright Le Sands Baths, Bronte Beach, and Tamarama Beach have a ‘pollution possible’ warning.

Beachwatch urges swimmers to exercise caution at these places, and said young children, the elderly and people with compromised health may be at risk.

Conditions are expected to clear by the weekend, with a hot and sunny day forecasted for Friday.

Temperatures are expected to hit a high of 28C, with the mercury rising to 31C in Penrith, in the city’s west.

By Friday morning, warnings for ocean beaches like Bondi, Coogee, and Clovelly Beach in the east had already been downgraded to ‘pollution unlikely’, and were suitable for swimming. Dee Why, Manly and Freshwater Beach in the north, and North and South Cronulla Beach in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire were also not affected by the warnings.

However swimmers are advised to check for “signs of pollution such as discolouration, floating debris and odours,” before getting into the water.