Les Waldock has crossed Australia’s deadliest coastal bar hundreds of times and says navigating the narrow channel on the New South Wales Far South Coast can be “heart-in-mouth stuff”.
“It can be a hell of an experience, and quite frightening,” the recreational fisher said of Narooma Bar.
“You’ve got 15, 20 seconds, half a minute to get to safety at the end of the break.“
Narooma Sport and Gamefishing Club member Les Waldock hopes to see safety at the entrance improved. (ABC South East NSW: Floss Adams)
Data from Transport for NSW shows a third of bar-related deaths in the state since 1995 have occurred on Narooma Bar.
Figures from the last decade show it is the most deadly bar crossing in Australia.
The breakwater infrastructure was built by the state government but boat skippers bear legal responsibility for the safety of their passengers when they cross.
A boat dangerously throttles over the second break in front of the Narooma Bar in 2012. (Supplied: Brian Gunter)
Former coroner David Heilpern argues that should change.
“It should not just be up to the skipper to make a decision,” he said.
“Boating … in comparison to driving or flying, appears to be a little like the Wild West and there seems to be a resistance to regulation that could save lives.”
Former magistrate David Heilpern’s recommendations following inquests into fatal incidents on the bar have not been acted upon. (ABC News: Natalie Grono)
Mr Heilpern presided over inquests into two fatal incidents on the bar in 2003.
In the lead-up to the hearings the NSW government passed legislation to make life jackets compulsory when crossing bars in NSW.
But Mr Heilpern’s other key recommendations, including that Narooma Bar be closed to boat traffic in treacherous conditions and that bar crossings be restricted for underpowered boats, have not been acted upon.
Marine Rescue’s Glenn Sullivan says boaters should seek local knowledge before crossing a coastal bar. (ABC South East NSW: Floss Adams)
Navigating a bar
Coastal bars are shallow, shifting sandbanks at the entrance of rivers and estuaries.
Glenn Sullivan from Marine Rescue NSW said the safest time to cross an ocean bar was when the tide was coming in.
“When you are entering the bar, you need to stay on the back of the wave that’s coming through and not overtake the wave,” he said.
“If you stay on the back of the wave there is no risk of the next wave catching up to you.“
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Suzanne Moore’s late husband John, a former Fisheries officer and commercial fisherman, was the first responder at the most recent fatality on the bar in 2023.
The 74-year old skipper died when his boat capsized but Mr Moore was able to rescue the man’s wife.
Ms Moore said her husband was concerned about the risky decisions some people made when crossing the bar.
Suzanne Moore’s late husband John responded to a fatal boating incident on the bar in 2023. (ABC South East NSW: Floss Adams)
“I think the main thing he wanted to see was that recreational fishers get something like a bar endorsement on their boat licence so that they know how to do it properly,” she said.
Skipper error can be a factor in bar crossing incidents, but engineer Angus Gordon believes a cost-cutting change to the original design of the Narooma breakwater may have created a deadly legacy.
Angus Gordon says dredging the bar would have little effect. (ABC News: Keira Proust)
“The breakwaters, basically, aren’t long enough,” he said.
“They really don’t penetrate to the offshore area, where conditions are a lot safer for a lot more of the time.”
Mr Gordon was involved in the original modelling of the Narooma breakwater in the 1970s, which specified that the rock walls be twice their current length.
He wrote to the treasury at the time to express his concern that the shorter breakwater would allow a dangerous sandbar to form at the entrance.
Narooma Bar can look stunning under the right conditions. (ABC South East NSW: Vanessa Milton)
Expensive fix
Mr Waldock is among the locals urging the state government to commit to regular dredging to remove the build-up of sand at the entrance.
Nine coastal locations across the state were earmarked for long-term dredging plans in March last year, but Narooma Bar was left off the list due to its “complexity”, according to then-transport minister Jo Haylen.
But Mr Gordon does not believe that dredging would have any lasting impact.
“The only thing you could do to make it safer is extend the breakwaters,” he said.
Mr Gordon estimated there “wouldn’t be much change from $20 or $30 million” to complete the project.
This option is not being considered by the NSW government.
NSW Maritime executive director Mark Hutchings says safe passage is a skipper’s responsibility. (Supplied)
“We can only deal with what we’re dealt with,” NSW Maritime executive director Mark Hutchings said.
“We are dealing with structures that have been built back in the 70s, 50s, and all the way back to the late 1800s.“
This image of Wagonga Inlet prior to the construction of the breakwaters in the 1970s hangs in Lynch’s Narooma. (ABC South East NSW: Floss Adams)
Mr Hutchings said the council could put a case for dredging to the government.
“If that bid is successful then we’ll do the assessment to see whether or not dredging is actually going to help there, based on the topography,” he said.
Les Waldock has been crossing the Narooma Bar since the 1970s. (ABC South East NSW: Floss Adams)
In the meantime, the government has invested in education campaigns, signage, and providing boaters with real-time information about bar conditions.
Mr Waldock said it was “inevitable” that more deaths would occur.
“If it were a road it would be called a black spot and there would be some money thrown at it to fix it,” he said.
