Stockton Beach, in NSW's Hunter region, has been battered by a massive tide that sent waves crashing over the Mitchell Street rock wall, and sand dunes near Corroba Oval, inundating Meredith Street with water and debris, reaching as far as Fullerton Street - the only access road into the peninsula suburb.
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While further south saturated children and elderly people can be seen running for safety after a 'massive' Kiama Blowhole, on NSW's south coast, spray drenched them on Saturday.
Meredith Street resident Tami Bruce was walking her dogs around 8.30am when she was hit by a freak wave that pulled her under the water and pushed her back around 15 metres and through a fence, leaving her battered and bruised.
"I had my eyes open and I was trying to get a hand or a foot down so that I could get my head up and see where my dogs were," Ms Bruce said, recounting the ordeal. She said the wave pulled her under the water, but luckily pushed her back toward the beach entrance and not out to sea.
"We were just walking by and I was looking out to sea because the waves were breaking out to sea as well and all of a sudden I noticed this wave coming at us and I called the dogs really quickly - I could see it coming fast - and then all of a sudden, it just took me and I was completely underwater," Ms Bruce said.
Swells between two metres and three metres were recorded across the city's beaches Saturday morning, but residents say as the high tide approached around 10am, the waves breaking at Stockton could easily have reached between 3.6m to 4.5m.
Down south at Kiama, James Hillier, who captured the moment the famous blowhole sent people running and posted a video on TikTok of the incident, said the water went at least 40 metres high before bucketing down on the unsuspecting people below.
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"It was surprising to see that those watching from just behind the fence seemed shocked when they copped a drenching. We were there about half and hour and it happened about two or three times," he said.
"Apart from a few scrapes and bruises on arms and legs, and maybe some hurt egos, no one seemed to be hurt too much.
"Most people made their way further up the viewing platform soon after."