banned wasn't so amusing at the time. ''There were times back then when all you'd see was a sea of Santa hats with bodies underneath. Some would be on [swimmers'] heads, others would be floating off. And we used to see the Poms coming down the hill with cases of beer on their shoulders.'' One Christmas, his team of lifeguards rescued 100 people. ''Christmas Day is more controlled at the beach now,'' he said. While people can still get drunk at home and then visit the beach, banning alcohol from the beach on Christmas Day meant fewer drunks who needed rescuing.

Because he will be working from noon on Christmas Day to 7pm, the 45-year-old lifeguard celebrated Christmas on Friday night with his family. On Christmas Day, he spendsSeafood Christmas Fishing for compliments after a festive feed Happy: Second generation prawn fisherman Gary Howard trawls the Hawkesbury River near Lower Portland for his Christmas catch. Photo: Nick Moir

As the sun rays creep across the Hawkesbury river shrouded in light mist, Gary Howard pulls in his third catch of the day on board his prawn trawler. ''It's always a good thing to catch a good catch of prawns,'' he says enthusiastically as he tugs at the tangled netting, wriggling with hundreds of school prawns, a long-finned eel and a few freshwater herrings. The stray catches are quickly thrown back into the river. For 23 years Mr Howard, a second generation fisherman, has been trawling the Hawkesbury river to supply prawns to the north-western outskirts of Sydney. This