Run Forster - Ocean Swim

Forster hosts open-water ocean events on the coastline of New South Wales, bringing swimmers into the Pacific surf for Run Forster - Ocean Swim organized by Elite Energy. Held during the summer month of February, the swim program includes sea courses over 500, 1,000, and 2,000 metres. That local open-water tradition took root in 2001, when members of the Cape Hawke and Forster surf clubs arranged an informal training swim between their clubhouses. That friendly club competition evolved into the Club to Club ocean swim, celebrated in past editions as an epic point-to-point journey connecting Cape Hawke to Forster Main Beach.

The extended course spans 3.8 kilometres, setting out along One Mile Beach, skirting Bennetts Head, trailing past The Tanks waterfront at Shelley Beach, and rounding Second Head before finishing on the sand at Forster Main Beach. Swimmers venturing around the exposed headlands navigate dynamic ocean conditions, where strong wave and current action can challenge your course. Rounding the outer rocky points brings swell and chop that demand a steady rhythm and composure in open water. The final stretch tests focus with a long, steady head swim through the ocean swell toward the shore. Those energetic offshore stretches contrast with the calm, crystal-clear water of Forster Main Beach, where past swims have offered a relaxed atmosphere focused entirely on the natural beauty of the coastline.

Forster Main Beach and the ocean baths: the town swimming spots

Swim Forster, the ocean swim held with the Elite Energy Run Forster weekend, offers distances of 2 km, 1 km and 500 m. Forster Main Beach is an arc of golden sand sheltered by Bennetts Head and regularly patrolled by lifeguards from October to April. At the southern end of Forster Main Beach is the huge Forster Ocean Baths, known locally as The Bull Ring.

Wallis Lake and the sand isthmus of Cape Hawke

Wallis Lake is an open and trained wave-dominated barrier estuary. The lake forms a large, relatively shallow coastal waterbody covering approximately 99 square kilometres. Stretching about 25 kilometres in length and nine kilometres across, this expansive lake gathers fresh inflows from multiple surrounding river systems. Wallis Lake is fed by Pipers Creek, the Coolongolook River, and the Wallamba River. Situated near the confluence of the Wallamba and Coolongolook rivers lies Hadleys Island, resting quietly inside the broad expanse of Wallis Lake. Wallis Lake is separated from the Pacific Ocean by a narrow strip of land extending between Cape Hawke and Booti Hill. Ancient promontories such as Cape Hawke and Charlotte Head were originally separate islands, until shifting sand deposits gradually linked them to the mainland.

Booti Booti National Park and the Wallis Island reserve

Booti Booti National Park provides a protected coastal landscape located about eight kilometres from the race area. The park is composed of three hill complexes: Cape Hawke, Booti Hill, and Charlotte Head. These elevated formations shelter diverse plant life, containing 46 distinct plant communities across the slopes, with 17 percent of the park classified as rainforest. Birdlife is abundant across the reserve, with 210 bird species recorded within the park boundaries. Historical resource extraction included mineral sand mining that occurred at Seven Mile Beach between 1969 and 1975, as well as mining operations at Elizabeth Beach between 1969 and 1970. Within the waters of Wallis Lake, located about six kilometres from the race beaches, Wallis Island Nature Reserve preserves 584 hectares of protected island habitat.

Shipwrecks and timber droghers along Cape Hawke coast

Forster is located on the traditional country of the Worimi People, whose deep cultural connection to these shores extends across millennia. Evidence of ancient Worimi occupation is preserved on Wallis Island, about six kilometres from the race area, where middens, stone tools, and rock art have been documented. These sites trace generations of coastal life, resource harvesting, and gathering along the protected waters of the estuary. In late June 1816, the schooner Edwin was wrecked near Cape Hawke, about fifteen kilometres from the race area. A violent gale drove the vessel into massive surf eighty miles north of Port Stephens, leaving the passengers and crew cast ashore on an unfamiliar coast.

Stranded on the beach, the survivors sustained themselves on shellfish and grass until they were found. Cut timber was transported through the local lakes and rivers on logpunts known as droghers. River transport remained an everyday necessity well into the twentieth century, with a riverboat milk pick-up service operating for local dairy farmers along the Wallamba River until the mid-1970s. About two kilometres from the race area on the Tuncurry shore, John Wright established the John Wright and Son Shipyards in 1875 on a 99-year lease, operating a timber mill, slipway, and a 50-foot wharf to load ships bound for Sydney. The final vessel built by the Wright shipyard was the US Army WT85, later named Protrude or Koolya, which served for decades before sinking at its mooring in Gosford in 2018.

Tuncurry rock pool and the Wallis Lake oyster harvest

The extensive oyster leases across the estuary provide a fresh culinary reward along the waterfront after a morning spent swimming in the sea. The area features an ocean pool in Forster and a rock pool in Tuncurry. These sheltered basins allow you to swim laps in clean ocean water without contending with the breaking surf of the open beaches. On the Tuncurry waterfront, the former industrial slipways of the historic shipyard were transformed in 1962 into John Wright Park, a scenic public recreation reserve. The park offers an open green space to rest on the grass by the water after a long swim. For open-water swimmers, the combination of protected rock pools and sweeping ocean courses makes Forster a compelling destination on the Australian coast.