Bondi among beaches closed in Sydney after debris washes ashore

A further five beaches have been closed in Sydney with thousands of toxic tar balls still washing ashore.

Transcript

00:00It would seem Bondi is open like any other ordinary day.

00:06That's despite Waverley Council, Maritime New South Wales and the Environment Protection

00:11Authority closing the beach after the same circular balls found at Coogee Beach on Tuesday

00:16afternoon were discovered here at Bondi and as far south as Botany Bay.

00:22Beaches will be closing on a case-by-case basis as officials continue their investigation

00:27and while the clean-up continues, the mystery still remains.

00:31When it comes to the investigation of the source of these mysterious balls, that is

00:37going to be led by New South Wales Maritime as the coordinating response agency.

00:42The spherical balls that are washing up on beaches here and across eastern Sydney are

00:48potentially linked to an oil spill out at sea, yet it is unknown where exactly that

00:53oil is coming from.

00:55Initial test results revealed the spheres are a petroleum-based product but the exact

01:01source still remains unknown and that certainly hasn't stopped beach-goers from coming down

01:06and getting amongst beach life here and even taking a dip in the water.

01:10I just jumped in, that's all.

01:12Just a quick little dip.

01:13We walked along the sand to make sure there was no little balls or anything and it was

01:17fine and now I've come down for another swim but it's closed.

01:19We didn't want to go against the rules so we didn't go in but we really wanted to.

01:24A command centre will be set up at Rizal where officials will manage this response

01:28in the coming days.