{"id":415950,"date":"2026-01-16T02:49:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T02:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/415950\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T02:49:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T02:49:19","slug":"campers-told-to-reconsider-travel-as-severe-weather-lashes-nsw-south-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/415950\/","title":{"rendered":"Campers told to reconsider travel as severe weather lashes NSW south coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Campers and travellers have begun to leave or change travel plans for the NSW south coast with severe weather forecast to continue battering the region across the weekend.<\/p>\n

A severe weather warning of heavy rain and damaging wind is in place for the state’s south coast and parts of the Illawarra, Southern Tablelands and Snowy Mountains.<\/p>\n

The town of Eden on the NSW far south coast was badly hit on Thursday night, when the first of the storms made landfall.<\/p>\n

Garden of Eden caravan park manager Bea Bamford had to evacuate campers from low-lying areas into cabins at the top side of the park.<\/p>\n

“We had to remove everybody, we had to get trucks and tractors and remove all caravans as best we could,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Some tents and a lot of stuff have been left behind and are ruined.<\/p>\n

\"Flood<\/p>\n

Debris at the Garden of Eden caravan park on Friday morning. (Supplied: Bea Bamford)<\/p>\n

“They’re all packing up and heading home.”<\/p>\n

Ms Bamford said the nearby river rose to past her knees during the night and pushed down the caravan park’s fence line.<\/p>\n

“The debris and the destruction is evident this morning,” she said.<\/p>\n

Campers warned<\/p>\n

Authorities have warned the risk is not over, with six-hourly rainfall totals of 50 to 80 millimetres expected on the south coast during Friday and isolated falls of up to 120 millimetres possible.<\/p>\n

The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) has warned the severe weather could pose significant risks for campers and travellers across the south coast and Illawarra during the next 48 hours.<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast that the coastline from Wollongong to Moruya will be worst impacted on Friday.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Flooding behind Emblen Street in Eden near Curalo Lagoon on Friday morning. (Supplied: Sherrie Harrison)<\/p>\n

SES incident controller Sharon Fox said crews were visiting high-risk camping areas and coastal sites along the south coast.<\/p>\n

“Anyone that is camped along the south coast in those low-lying areas we definitely urge you to make a smart decision and pack up and move away from those areas,” Ms Fox said.<\/p>\n

“The best advice would be to pack up and move on.<\/p>\n

“The more people that take that advice is fantastic, because it just lowers the stress for the volunteers having to go out and do rescues.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

There has been some flash flooding at Eden. (Supplied: Sherrie Harrison)<\/p>\n

Caravan Park operators in the Illawarra have reached out to their campers with warnings about the severe weather.<\/p>\n

Big Four Kiama caravan park operator Sharon Nellies said the park was taking all precautions.<\/p>\n

“We’re also contacting all of our sites that are anywhere near our potential flood sites and warned them to prepare for emergency evacuation or to leave early,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Most of our sites are due to leave tomorrow, so we are seeing a lot of sites packing up now to get ahead of it and leave today.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The SES was called to an inundated home in Kingspoint overnight.\u00a0 (Supplied: NSW State Emergency Service)<\/p>\n

People are being urged to leave early and monitor conditions on the roads, especially as conditions peak in the Illawarra on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

“We need people to take care on the roads,” Ms Fox said.<\/p>\n

“If we do see those thunderstorms developing, it’s likely that they could lead to flash flooding on the roads.”<\/p>\n

High rainfall totals<\/p>\n

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Merimbula Airport received 110 millimetres in the 24 hours to 10am on Friday, while Brogo near Bega received 115mm and Green Cape 77mm.<\/p>\n

Multiple residents in Eden, Kiah and Nethercote told the ABC they had received about 200mm in their rain gauges.<\/p>\n

The State Emergency Service responded to 98 calls for assistance across the south-eastern zone in the 24 hours to 8am.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Windy and rainy weather has been tracking its way up the south coast. (Supplied: NSW State Emergency Service)<\/p>\n

Wet weekend forecast<\/p>\n

Winds were expected to average 60-70 kilometres per hour across parts of the coastline, particularly around Jervis Bay, on Friday.<\/p>\n

SES south east duty incident controller Barry Griffiths said motorists should plan their journeys.<\/p>\n

“There’s some significant rainfall, consistently spread through the day, all the way from Eden up to Sydney,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If you’re driving, it is going to be wet today, so make sure your windshield wipers are in good condition.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A tree fell down in Kiah on the NSW far south coast.\u00a0 (Supplied: NSW State Emergency Service)<\/p>\n

“Check the weather \u2026 and either defer travel or just make sure that when you are travelling, if the rain is too heavy, pull over.<\/p>\n

“If you see any floodwater, don’t drive through it.”<\/p>\n

The heaviest rain is predicted to shift slowly up the coast through after Friday, to be focused around the Illawarra and Sydney on Saturday and the Hunter by Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Campers and travellers have begun to leave or change travel plans for the NSW south coast with severe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,41599,18630,44,44440,15157,219489,33608,219490,184708,151289,3792],"class_list":["post-415950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-camping","tag-flooding","tag-news","tag-nsw-far-south-coast","tag-rain","tag-sandbags","tag-ses","tag-severe-weather-warning","tag-south-coast","tag-state-emergency-service","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}