Sydney shutters iconic surf beaches after alien balls found on sand

"We don't know at the moment what it is and that makes it even more concerning."

To declare that these are the strangest of times is a severe understatement. I suppose the thick of the Black Death days, when folk wandered around with dried toads hung from their necks, were also the strangest of times. Australia’s Emu Wars certainly very strange, too, but here at the dawn of 2025 we have Southern California burning, North Korean soldiers wandering around in Ukraine and alien balls washing up on Sydney’s iconic beaches forcing mass shutterings in the heat of summer.

Manly, Dee Why, Long Reef, Queenscliff, Freshwater, North and South Curl Curl, North Steyne and North Narrabeen, each very featuring very fine surf breaks, currently closed to the public.

Six months ago, alien balls washed up on famed Bondi Beach, forcing closure there too, but those ones were black and turned out to be fatty acids, though the Environmental Protection Agency disputed the notion, declaring it, “can’t explain the source of the human waste causing the fatbergs and it can’t assure the public that Sydney’s beaches are safe to use.

These new ones are white or grey and completely cryptic.

Northern Beaches mayor Sue Heins old the Guardian that they “could be anything,” continuing, “We don’t know at the moment what it is and that makes it even more concerning. There’s something that’s obviously leaking or dropping… floating out there and being tossed around.”

Surfers are encouraged to call the authorities if and when they come across the foreign bits.