IT appears sharks are not the only thing Australian beach goers need to be on the lookout for this summer.

Visitors and lifeguards were left shell-shocked after a highly venomous brown snake emerged from the surf at One Mile beach at Forster on the NSW mid-north coast yesterday morning.

The Great Lakes Advocate reports lifeguard whistles had beach goers on the look out for a shark, but it was a deadly 1.5m eastern brown snake that emerged from the water right between the flags.

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Olivia Moffatt was visiting the Great Lakes at the time and snapped a photo of the reptile as it slithered up onto the beach.

“Tourists and locals fled from the water after the whistles were blown,” she told the Great Lakes Advocate.

“At first people were concerned it may have been a shark, only to discover a 1.5m brown snake.”

Read more on this story at the Great Lakes Advocate.