Beach Water Quality

Beach Swimming Advice

Council works with the Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA Victoria), to help you decide when and where to swim in Hobsons Bay. The advice is based on weather forecasts and warnings, bacterial water quality history and recent sample results. EPA Beach Report 

Stormwater Alerts

  • Can occur at anytime of the year and are based on high stormwater activity
  • If high bacteria levels (poor water quality) are forecast for the next day, the EPA will issue a stormwater alert, which may result in a bacterial water quality alert being issued
  • The EPA advises to avoid swimming near stormwater or river outlets 24 to 48 hours after heavy rain
  • For more information about environmental protection visit www.epa.vic.gov.au.

Beach Report

  • Forecasts will consider broader recreational water quality (algal blooms, minor spill and pollution), not just the bacterial condition, e.g. if the initial forecast for a beach is ‘Good’ (due to no forecast rainfall and low bacterial levels in the weekly sample) but an algal bloom exists at the beach, the forecast will be downgraded to ‘Fair’ or even ‘Poor’
  • If the EPA then detects high bacteria levels from weekly water-quality monitoring they will assign an ‘Unacceptable’ rating for the beach
  • Swim advisories rarely lead to closures for periods longer than one day
  • To access the beach report visit Beach Report | Environment Protection Authority Victoria (epa.vic.gov.au)
Back to top