City of Sydney faces challenges in developing new harbour swimming spots

Pledging to install more shark nets across harbour foreshore swimming spots, the City of Sydney has advised of the challenges it faces in opening up the iconic water body to swimmers.

However, it warns that sewage outflows, old pipes and pollution are obstacles to installing more netted spots to swim in Sydney Harbour.

As reported by Guardian Australia, the council has pledged to install more nets across the inner city for swimming including possibly at Elizabeth Bay near where a woman was bitten by a shark last week. However, this will only occur when water quality is good enough.

In a story reported around the world, Lauren O’Neill was swimming in the harbour near her home shortly before sunset when a shark struck her right leg.

This has prompted calls for more places to safely swim around the harbour.

Advising that there is a huge desire from Sydneysiders to get into the harbour, which was often calmer and more accessible than ocean beaches, Caroline Clements, a keen open water swimmer and the author of Places We Swim, told Guardian Australia “certainly there is an appetite for these things to be accessible all over the city and into the cracks and crevices of the harbour.

“If we have the ability to maximise its potential without harming the environment then I think that’s a great thing.”

Despite the installation of a new harbour swimming spot at Marrinawi Cove in Barangaroo last year, the City of Sydney said water testing had indicated a similar approach would not be possible yet for Elizabeth Bay, nor in Glebe.

The council had a “long-term vision to make our world-renowned harbour more accessible to the community for swimming” but water quality remained the “biggest obstacle”.

A City of Sydney spokesperson stated “given the significant hurdles presented by harbour pollution and sewage pipe outflows, making the harbour swimmable will require a whole of government approach.”

The council said it had been working with Sydney Water to improve the water quality but it was an expensive task that requires NSW Government support.

The spokesperson added “the city has committed to installing infrastructure that facilitates and encourages harbour swimming, including nets, once water quality reaches acceptable levels.

Sydney Water has an in-principal agreement with the City of Sydney to “assist them in the development of future swim spots in the harbour”, a spokesperson confirmed.

Water researcher Ian Wright, an Associate Professor at Western Sydney University, said water quality in the harbour had improved greatly over the past 30 years but there were still areas that needed work, including further investment in water testing.

Associate Professor Wright noted “it’s an environmental health 101.

“If we get it wrong, it’s a fantastic way of picking up waterborne diseases.”

Water quality across the city’s beaches and harbour is monitored by the state environment department and published by Beachwatch so swimmers can make informed decisions.

Associate Professor Wright said water quality was generally worse further from the heads and there were regular quality drops after heavy rains when even netted spots should be avoided, adding “if the city has had heavy rain, you don’t really need Beachwatch to tell you that discolouration, that muddy brown colour is the horrible detritus of human society

“Just about everywhere is really poor quality after heavy rain and it’s just flushing off the car park, dog poop, brake dust … overflowing sewage is huge issue.”

Images: Marrinawi Cove at Barangaroo Reserve was opened in January 2023 (top) and a 2021 concept for a floating pool on the Glebe foreshore (below, credit: Andrew Burges Architects).