Safer Swimming Australia

Guide to choosing a location for a permanent swimming enclosure

In researching safe swimming enclosures, we have found that there are some common features of the areas they are installed in. When these social, natural and built environment features are all present, they increase the value delivered to the community from the barrier installation.

Social Criteria

Barriers are most successful when they are installed at locations where:

  • There’s community demand or concern for a protected swimming area
  • Evidence or history of shark presence and predation that has reduced people’s likelihood or willingness to swim in that area.
  • It’s already an attractive swimming location because of water clarity, aesthetics, or location
  • Plus there’s a local or visiting population to patronise the barrier.

Features of the Existing Built Environment

Then there are considerations of the built environment already existing adjacent to the area where the swimming enclosure is being built–

  • Is there existing infrastructure already in the area like carparking, public transport, changing rooms, and/or jetties to support increased patronage?
  • Does the beach area considered have sufficient space to handle an. increase in visitor & swimmer numbers?
  • Is the coastal area adjacent to the swimming area suitable for easy operational & maintenance access e.g. not limited to just a pedestrian pathway down a cliff, or surrounded by un-navigable rocks.

Environmental Features

When looking at the ocean environment, safe swimming enclosures suit:

  • The water depth and bathymetry e.g. water depths at lowest astronomic tide are greater than 1m
  • Tidal ranges less than 3.5m
  • Maximum wave height less than 2m
  • Current running at less than 1m per second

Plus it’s important to evaluate aspects like:

  • Is the local environment particularly sensitive to installation of a safer swimming area e.g. will it have a detrimental impact on flora, fauna, habitat, sediment transport or other values?
  • Is the substrate and benthos suitable for installation, knowing that there are a range of anchoring options available e.g. is it reef, rock or sand?
  • Is there proximate source of wrack or weed that may need to be considered, knowing that this is generally not a constraint to operations e.g. seagrass meadows, kelp forests.
  • Are the metocean and climatic conditions highly variable such that seasonality is a consideration, knowing that this can generally be accommodated e.g. winter storms with peak waves and currents.

SSA can assist in developing a barrier that suits local and individual site requirements.