{"id":542659,"date":"2026-03-15T21:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T21:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/542659\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T21:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T21:08:11","slug":"body-of-missing-swimmer-found-at-werri-beach-on-nsw-south-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/542659\/","title":{"rendered":"Body of missing swimmer found at Werri Beach on NSW south coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man has died while swimming at a beach off the New South Wales south coast.<\/p>\n

Authorities found the body of the man, believed to have been aged in his 20s, at Werri Beach just after 5pm on Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A multi-agency search effort was underway at the time for the man, who was reported missing when he failed to return from a swim about 3:20pm.<\/p>\n

Surf Life Saving NSW duty officer Shane Wicks said patrols noticed the man was caught in a rip but were unable to reach him before he “disappeared from sight”.<\/p>\n

“The patrol initiated a search of the area, which expanded quickly,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Some dye was dropped [in the water] to follow some currents, which assisted the lifesavers in locating [the man].”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

A multi-agency search was conducted on Sunday afternoon. (ABC Illawarra: Penny Burfitt)<\/p>\n

Emergency service personnel were unable to revive the man after locating his body at the beach, south of Kiama.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Wicks said conditions were “tricky” in the water on Sunday afternoon, and the man from south-west Sydney was visiting the beach with a group of friends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A report will be prepared for the coroner.<\/p>\n

Extensive search\u00a0<\/p>\n

NSW Police officers and water police crews, alongside ambulance paramedics and Surf Life Saving NSW (SLS) were involved in the search efforts on Sunday afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A helicopter was also deployed to assist with the search on the currently patrolled Werri Beach.<\/p>\n

Mr Wicks said about 30 SLS volunteers assisted across the afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s going to have a massive effect on them,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We are a tight club, so they will rally around each other.”\"A<\/p>\n

A group of bystanders speaking with authorities on Sunday afternoon. (ABC Illawarra: Penny Burfitt)<\/p>\n

Mr Wicks said the man was swimming 50 metres outside the flags on the southern end of the beach at the time.<\/p>\n

“We always ask, go to a flagged area. Swim between the flags,” he said.<\/p>\n

He urged members of the public to take time to assess the conditions before swimming.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Most lifesavers and surfers look at the water for at least five minutes before they go in,” Mr Wicks said.<\/p>\n

“Stop, look, and stay alive.”<\/p>\n

It comes less than a week after a married couple from the United Kingdom<\/a> drowned at Shellharbour Beach South, 20 kilometres north of Werri Beach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man has died while swimming at a beach off the New South Wales south coast. Authorities found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[23979,43,16142,148040,44,1158,7452,268875,128038,15997,41,39,42,40,268874],"class_list":["post-542659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-drowning","tag-headlines","tag-kiama","tag-missing-swimmer","tag-news","tag-police","tag-search","tag-search-for-swimmer","tag-surf-life-saving","tag-swimming","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-werri-beach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542659","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=542659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}