The rugged cliffs at Snapper Point towards Frazer Beach. Credit:MARINA NEIL "They saw the helicopter hovering above them. They would have watched on as this young bloke's body was pulled ashore. "They would have seen us all on the beach. And were obviously highly inexperienced and obviously had little knowledge of the area because if they did they would not have bothered." Paul Stone is not just a local in these parts surrounding Munmorah State Recreation Area which covers the northern edge of the Central Coast and southern coast of Lake Macquarie. He is also the lifeguard service supervisor for Lake Macquarie City Council. A position he has held for well over a decade.

The cliff face at Snapper Point, Lake Munmorah State Conservation Park. Credit:MARINA NEIL And what he saw irritated him. Irritated because there had already been 13 people drown along this tiny three-kilometre stretch of coastline south of Catherine Hill Bay since 2010. At least 16 in a decade. Warning signs at Frazer Beach. Credit:MARINA NEIL Some call it the death stretch.

No one was to know, but another would be washed off those same unforgiving rocks within days and to her death. This time it was a 43-year-old woman, rockfishing with her husband. This time authorities were able to retrieve her body. Many others have never been found. Some were taken from a place the locals call Flat Rock, less than a kilometre north. And it means what they say – there is a false headland with a long and wide flat rock platform which looks appealing to fishermen looking a feed. Its structure is also attractive for the fish they are trying to catch which is the reason locals believe it has become a killing field of inexperienced fisherman caught out.

Like the extended family of five who were swept to their deaths in 2011. Or the three Lake Macquarie friends, Niranda Blair, 18, Ben Winn, 20, and Trey Adamson, 18, who lost their lives less than a year later. The locals say it has a lot to do with not knowing the local conditions. And it has a lot to do with topography. The Tasman Sea juts up quickly here; sometimes it is 10 metres from the "edge" of the platform to the seabed. That means any waves speeding towards that coastline spike up moments before they hit. The rogue waves are not so rogue here.

And when you have half a football field of jagged edges there is nowhere to run when a surge pummels across the flat rock. There has long been a quiet conversation within local emergency services that lifejackets are only good for body retrieval, rather than rescue. The off-the-record conversation is that lifejackets make bodies easy to find but mean nothing when you are dragged across these "cheese cutters" into the sea. "Lifejackets are great but what is the message we are sending to people – it is OK to be washed into the water," Mr Stone said. "I know a lot of rock fishermen and none of them have ever been washed in."

Many – like the woman killed this week – can not swim. Mr Stone said education was the key and having would-be rock anglers learn the nuances of the sea. "There might be a little bit lapping over your toes now, but if it is low tide there will be two metres of water over where you are standing in just a few hours," Mr Stone said. "Before you fish there, sit and watch for 15 minutes or so because every once in a while the big sets of waves come in. They are much bigger than the rest and they are the ones that will catch you out. "We are talking about inexperienced fishermen that just go and fish at the wrong location in the worst conditions on the worst days.

"People that do this need to take some responsibility for their actions. "At the very least, they need to sit back and observe the conditions, learn what the water is doing, before even contemplating fishing." But Swansea's Labor MP Yasmin Catley, who has been leading the push for lifejackets, disagrees. Her electorate takes in the "deadly coast" and she has been strong in her push for the state government to introduce compulsory wearing of lifejackets across the state. "We know the efforts to reduce rock fishing deaths thus far, including education campaigns, have been ineffective," Ms Catley said.

"The reality is life jackets are the most effective means of ensuring a successful rescue, rather than retrieval. "The ugly truth is that this was a preventable tragedy." Meanwhile, dozens will still be fishing off Flat Rock and Snapper Point today.