During the morning the only open beaches in the Hastings were Town Beach and Flynns Beach however as of midday, lifeguards have made the decision to close Town Beach after monitoring the surf situation and deeming them too dangerous.

The extremely slow moving, low pressure system which has now moved towards New Zealand, has caused issues for locals and holiday makers alike, but according Weatherzone meteorologist, Brett Dutschke, the conditions will not ease until the weekend.

“The swell peaked overnight, but this morning the conditions are expected to be as worse as they have been for the week.

“The waves should be peaking around 2-3 metres today with a very gradual easing over the next two days,” Mr Dutschke said.

Mr Dutschke also said the fetch - a massive stretch of ocean which extends south – is encouraging the swell to build significantly making beach conditions quite severe, but also said that the hazardous weather warning may be lifted by the weekend.

Port Macquarie’s head lifeguard James Turnham said that the conditions have been touch and go.

“We are just not seeing the conditions improve and have decided to continue to close beaches in the Hastings.

“Town and Flynns beaches were opened this morning but the conditions at Town Beach has since deteriorated to the point that lifeguards said they need to close the beach,” Mr Turnham said.

Mr Turnham pointed to an incident at the unpatrolled Shelly Beach on January 17 where two young children were swept out to sea after swimming in knee deep water and had to be rescued, and said that there is a reason the beaches are currently closed.

“When we close the beaches there is a reason for this, so we urge people to only go to a patrolled beach and only go in the water when the flags are up,” he said.

This comes after a number of close calls at beaches in Port Macquarie this summer and two tragic drownings last December.