Hundreds of onlookers, wearing hats and sunglasses on a January day, cheer from vantage points along Lee Breakwater or from the cliff overlooking the beach.

There's a fella on the breakwater talking about how his mate decided to start training in October once he heard there was a new event coming to Portland.

"He just bought a wetsuit and started swimming in the ocean with a group every few days," the fella says.

A nearby family is talking about the 170-year-old shipwreck in the water - the New Zealander.

"You mean they actually swim over the ship," a girl says to her dad.

"Yep," he says as he points at the two buoys above the sunken ship's end points.

The inaugural Portland leg of the Shipwreck Coast Swim Series (SCSS) on January 15 is bound to get people talking.

There'll be a 1200-metre swim as well as a short course event.

The series, which already involves open water swims at Warrnambool, Port Campbell and Port Fairy, is a major fundraiser for the surf clubs.

Besides providing a new test for swimmers, the Portland leg has plenty for onlookers to take in such as the New Zealander.

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According to the Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database, the New Zealander, which had originally come from Liverpool, sunk in 1853 after being found ablaze.

Further adding to the intrigue, is the beach is named after the historic Loreto convent - today Bayview College - which looks over the water.

Portland Surf Life Saving Club (PSLSC) president Roger Trewavis believes the event at Nun's Beach will attract good numbers.

He noted there was a strong ocean swimming scene at Portland.

Trewavis is part of a group which swims at Cape Bridgewater each Saturday morning.

He added another group of locals swam at Nun's Beach regularly. The beach is renowned for its warm showers.

The president said open-water swimmers were thrilled to see Portland join the shipwreck coast series.

"They're pretty keen to be involved, it'll be good because a lot of them have already been doing the series anyway so to bring it home to Portland - we're hoping to get a really good response from them," he said.

He feels other exercise enthusiasts may pull on their goggles and jump in because there's an event in their hometown.

"They might get involved in the surf club because it's all about surf clubs, the four clubs getting together and working together. To me, that's just fantastic as a district," he said.

Trewavis explained the funds from the four events get combined and divided between the clubs.

Gerald Lovell, who recently jumped back on the PSLSC committee, helped get the ball rolling on the idea.

"Quite a few people in Portland, the community and club members that I know have regularly participated in the swim series," he said.

"I was swimming with some of them at Nun's Beach over the summers holidays and asked them why Portland wasn't involved in the series.

"And perhaps they weren't even really aware it was an event organised by the local western district surf clubs and a fundraiser directly for those clubs.

"And everyone seemed to think it was a good idea."

While Lovell lives in Melbourne, he and his family usually spend their summer holidays at Portland - where he and his wife grew up.

Lovell has also joined the SCSS committee and will help administer the Portland event.

He feels the shipwrecked New Zealander will help attract interest in the swim.

"You nearly always, if you want to, you can swim over the wreck and see it, it's not very deep, and you can see the ribs of the old wooden boat and the keel still.

"It's quite an accessible wreck to get a look at."

The inaugural swim won't be at PSLSC's home which is about 20 kilometres down the road at Cape Bridgewater.

Trewavis explained Nun's Beach was a safer option.

"It's a bit unpredictable whether you can actually run it on a set date every time (at Bridgewater), whereas this is a lot safer beach to run it at," he said.

"It's still open sea but it's a lot more sheltered, it does get rough here too sometimes but more often it'll be better here than at Bridgewater so we figured we'll run it here and see how it goes.

"It's a possibility in the future we could run one at Bridgewater instead of this but at the moment because it's the Shipwreck Coast Swim Series and we've actually got a shipwreck at the end of the beach - it's ideal."

The president wants to highlight the New Zealander.

"Sometimes when it's clear you can actually see the outline of the shape of the boat buried in the sand so hopefully on the day we'll be able to set some markers because that's about where the turnaround point will be," he said.

Trewavis has been in the lifesaving club for more than 40 years and is enjoying his second stint as president.

"I joined the club having got my bronze medallion and then I got dragged into a surf boat crew and never looked back - just loved it," he said.

Trewavis said PSLSC's clubhouse had been done up recently and there were many developments around it.

"That whole Cape Bridgewater Bay is being redeveloped with major new boat ramps and disability access and stairs and a retaining rock wall all the way along, I suppose future proofing it against any future climate change, he said.

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