BY JESSICA ROUSE

The brand new One Mile Beach Lifeguard facility has opened in Port Stephens today.

The $840,000 dollar building is a massive improvement on the last facility and now features new storage for surf life-saving equipment, a first aid room and an elevated shark observation tower.

Community and Recreation Coordinator Brock Lamont says the council has worked with the local surf lifeguards to ensure the building meets their needs.
The new facility at One Mile Beach.

Image supplied.

“It’s a massive upgrade from the previous building that our lifeguards were operating from. There was a small facility there that was quite dated – it was a timber structure that had been there for quite some time so the guys were very happy to see the back of that building.”

The shark observation tower is a particularly good part of the upgrade giving lifeguards better oversight of the beach and they’ll be able to respond faster to shark sightings.

“One Mile is one of our more popular beaches and with the caravan park nearby we get quite a lot of people just dropping in to use the beach there so in terms of giving them a better facility to make sure that everyone is using the beaches is far safer,” said Brock Lamont.

The facility will be open every day and operate between 9am and 5pm and 9am to 6pm during school holidays.
Port Stephens Lifeguard Supervisor Phil Rock really only has one message to beachgoers.
“As always, we’re keeping the message simple – always swim at a patrolled location, always stay between the red and yellow flags, and never swim alone.”