REDHEAD beach has been splashed with three colourful murals installed as part of what Lake Macquarie council has hailed a world-first smart beaches project.
The large pieces painted by Daniel Joyce depict the beach, its lifeguards, marine life and iconic shark tower.
The main mural features on the the surf club's storage shed facing the car park.
One of the murals will incorporate technology to provide real-time beach conditions and other data.
Lake Macquarie council has been using technology, including crowd-counting cameras and weather sensors, at Redhead and Blacksmiths to improve public safety, user amenity and assist professional lifeguards.
The council's smart beaches project manager, Tony Blunden, said the trial had helped determine the best technology to deploy and how to collate the data it produced to best serve beach users.
"We're now in the process of reporting back on the trial, and assessing the viability of scaling it up to roll out this kind of technology at other beaches along Australia's coast," he said.
The project, which was conducted with Northern Beaches Council and the University of Technology Sydney, received $910,000 in funding under the federal government's Smart Cities and Suburbs Program.
The funding agreement included an allocation for a permanent artwork at one of the trial beaches.
Joyce, who has been painstakingly painting beach-themed murals for more than 20 years, spent upwards of 160 hours creating the artworks in his nearby studio.
"Local knowledge of the beach, and all its beauty and danger, together with regular on-site meetings with lifeguards and council to fine-tune details of the project, has really helped," he said.
"If any part of this artwork piques the attention of a member of the community and assists in possibly saving someone's life or preventing an incident, then this project has been a success."
Installation of the three murals is expected to be complete by the end of the week.
The digital monitor will be installed in August prior to the 2020-21 beach season.
