AUSTRALIA Day’s traditional Newcastle harbour swim may never return to the water after organisers were forced to cancel this year’s event.
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Stockton Surf Life Saving Club announced this week they would not hold the event in 2017, only the second time club president and life member Trevor Upton remembers the event not proceeding.
The club issued a statement this week saying “increased marine activity” made it difficult to keep competitors safe during the open water swim.
The swim is expected to be replaced with a new event, but Mr Upton said swim would likely never return in its traditional format.
The swim has traditionally been the club’s major fundraiser.
Mr Upton said the funds raised traditionally went into major pieces of infrastructure for the club used to patrol the area.
“It’s basically for buying surf life saving equipment, the bigger stuff you can’t get enough money for through the grant.
“We use it for IRBs, motors and things like that. We’re pretty disappointed.”
Mr Upton said a major sponsor had been approached to run the event this year but concerns over safety meant the deal fell through. He declined to name the potential sponsors.
“We just sort of had to bite the bullet,” he said.
While the trans-harbour route will likely never return, Mr Upton said he held out hope that some form of harbour swim might return or another sponsor could emerge.
Mr Upton said there were a few other formats being considered, including the potential to swim along the edge of the harbour rather than across it, but the event would likely either transform or disappear.
“You probably can’t say that it’s gone forever but we may just have to look at other ways to do it,” he said.
The harbour swim was cancelled in January 2015 due to increased shark activity. Flooding left its fate in limbo until the last minute last year but it ultimately went ahead.