Hundreds take to the water for annual Newcastle Harbour Swim

More than 600 people are competing in the annual Newcastle Harbour Swim. It's the 30th time the race has been held.

Transcript

00:00Well, this year's Newcastle Harbour Swim, it's the 30th time this event has been run

00:08in Newcastle, one of the mainstays for Australia Day here in the city, and we're seeing some

00:14of the competitors for one of the early races get into the water now.

00:18This event will see two races over the day, one 700 metres, which will be a loop around

00:23the harbour back here to Stockton, and then later on today, a 1400 metre event, which

00:28will see competitors cross the harbour to Queen's Wharf and then come back here to finish

00:34in Stockton with prize money on the line.

00:37Now, this event, the entries do raise money for the local Surf Lifesaving Club here in

00:42Stockton who run this event.

00:44They're out on the harbour keeping an eye on things, monitoring conditions, making sure

00:48the swimmers compete safely.

00:51Now, we did have a chat to them a bit earlier, they let us know the conditions, I'm sure you

00:55can see kind of how windy it is around Newcastle today.

00:59In the water, it's about 20, 21 degrees, so a bit chilly, and I'm going to say it, these

01:04competitors in these conditions, they're pretty brave.

01:07It was really choppy, very choppy today.

01:09Usually it's smooth, and I'm a surf, I compete in surf sports a lot, so the choppier conditions

01:17probably suited me a little bit more because I'm used to swimming in the open water.

01:22Now, for the past few weeks here on the New South Wales coastline, there has been some

01:27shark sightings and a few unfortunate shark attacks.

01:31The organisers of this event have rolled out additional safety measures.

01:36As I said before, the Surf Lifesavers themselves, they're out on kayaks, out on boats in the harbour

01:41keeping an eye on things.

01:43They've also organised a drone pilot to keep an eye on it from the air and to make sure

01:48that this is a safe passage for these swimmers to compete in.

01:52So, yet another beautiful day here in Newcastle on January 26th, Australia Day, with this iconic

01:59event kicking on for a 30th edition.