Bombo Beach is among the Illawarra beaches that rated “very good” in the State of the Beaches Report. Photo: Kellie O’Brien.
After years of poor water quality, one of Shellharbour’s most popular swimming spots has made a remarkable comeback.
Entrance Lagoon Beach at Reddall Reserve — once the only beach in the Illawarra with a “poor” rating — has now been declared “good” in the NSW State of the Beaches Report, joining every other monitored swim and ocean beach site in the region in receiving a clean bill of health.
Known locally as Kiyong Beach, the calm, sheltered stretch of beach near the entrance to Lake Illawarra had its quality rating shift significantly from being “poor” in 2023 and 2024 to bypassing the “fair” rating and now being graded “good” this year.
In last year’s report, Entrance Lagoon Beach was the only beach from Gerroa to Stanwell Park that received a poor rating.
Shelharbour City Council has worked on improving Reddall Reserve, with parts of its masterplan transforming the deteriorating Lake Illawarra foreshore and concrete promenade with an environmentally friendly seawall design to provide an intertidal habitat for marine life.
Over time, the foreshore had experienced storm and weather damage, with many sections at beach level and covered by sand, making it inaccessible.
Among issues plaguing its water quality were stormwater, sewage overflows, animal faeces, and runoff from Lake Illawarra.
“Rainfall is the main driver of pollution in recreational waters as it generates stormwater runoff and can trigger discharges from the wastewater system,” the report said.
“Rainfall across New South Wales was mostly average to below average, with some isolated wet months during the 2025 reporting period.”
Testing for water quality was mostly conducted by Sydney Water and monitored by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water’s Beachwatch Program, with 20 sites tested in the Illawarra and all sites’ results remaining stable.
The upgraded Reddall Reserve Promenade was recognised with a prestigious engineering award earlier this year. Photo: Shellharbour City Council.
Top beaches were Stanwell Park Beach, Coledale Beach, Austinmer Beach, Woonona Beach, Wollongong City Beach, Coniston Beach, Fishermans Beach at Port Kembla, Warilla Beach, Shellharbour Beach, Boyds Jones Beach at Kiama Downs, Bombo Beach, and Werri Beach at Gerringong.
Throughout NSW, 76 per cent of monitored swim sites were graded “good” or “very good”, meaning a slight improvement on last year’s 72 per cent.
Suitability for swimming involves two parts – a sanitary inspection to assess the likelihood of faecal contamination, and water quality testing, to measure levels of enterococci bacteria over time.
Key sources of contamination considered during the sanitary inspection were toilet facilities, wastewater treatment plants, sewage overflows, sewer chokes, onsite systems, wastewater reuse, stormwater, river discharge, boats and animals.
“All recreational waters contain some level of microbes that can cause illness,” the report said.
A “good” quality rating indicates “generally good microbial water quality, with several potential sources of faecal pollution”.
The report said for this rating, there was occasional increased risk to public health, particularly after rainfall, and “water quality was suitable for swimming most of the time”.
A “very good” classification means “water quality monitoring and sanitary inspection indicate very good microbial water quality and few potential sources of faecal pollution. Water quality is suitable for swimming almost all of the time.”
