Crikey: Sea snakes scare swimmers at a Newcastle beach

Tina Walker was walking along Dixon Park Beach, just north of the surf club, at about 7.30am on Sunday morning when she made the shocking discovery.

"My husband was a bit ahead of me and he was pretty close to it, I saw it and I just screamed - I couldn't get my words out well," Ms Walker

"At first we thought it was dead. We stood and watched to see what it would do, and it wasn't moving. A little shore break came through and covered it with water, and it still wasn't moving.

"Then it moved its head and turned around. Another break came through and it swam back in."

That's when they noticed there was another snake swimming in the surf, and soon a third snake was spotted in the water.

The pair informed Lifeguards who were setting up nearby for Nippers. The red flags were put up, as the snakes were monitored. By 9am, they had left the area and the flags were removed.

The snakes were described as black with yellow bellies, and black spots near the tail. After consulting with Google, Mrs Walker believes they were yellow-bellied sea snakes, which are extremely venomous.

"It was pretty scary... I thought the only thing I had to be afraid of at the beach was sharks - turns out it's snakes as well," Ms Walker said with a laugh.

"It would have been quite easy to step on, it looked like a piece of driftwood.

Yellow-bellied sea snakes rarely drift ashore and usually only do so if sick or injured. Ms Walker said the snake on the beach did appear "quite lethargic", however the other two were swimming freely.

The Newcastle Herald asked Ms Walker if she thought the story would feed into international cliches about Australia.

"Well my husband's first word when he saw it was crikey," she chuckled.

"To be fair, I've been walking that beach for 30 years and I've never seen anything like it."

Snakes aren't the only animals to enjoy the region's beaches.

Seals are regularly seen sunning themselves, sighted all the way from the Newcastle break to Blacksmith's Beach.

In 2021, Blacksmiths local Alicia Nash snapped an amazing photo of a mature New Zealand Fur-seal.

It was the first time she had seen such a sight in more than a decade of living in the area.

"It was a nice surprise," she said. "It was just cleaning itself and looking at the people."

National Parks and Wildlife said the seal had "hauled out" - which means leaving the water to rest, or on some occasions even mate, give birth or rear young.

The beautiful yet mysterious blue dragons are usually spotted on Hunter beaches at least once a year, often arriving alongside the recent armada of bluebottles.

The creatures are a species of brightly coloured sea slug, or nudibranch, and despite the rumours, they are not considered "deadly" unless of course you are a delicious bluebottle.

In 2018, 81 shipping containers fell off a ship in rough seas, with their contents - including straight-from-the-factor Chevrolet utes - washing up on shores over the course of months.

Unfortunately, several whales have been washed ashore across the region's coastline.

Earlier this year, rescue teams monitored a juvenile whale at Caves Beach, which was entangled in two orange buoys.