The new shark "eco-barriers" for Ballina and Lennox Head beaches, on the NSW north coast, will not be installed until after the Christmas holiday period.
NSW Premier Mike Baird travels to Ballina's Lighthouse Beach on Monday to announce the state's first eco-barrier nets, but local mayor David Wright says it will be a nervous wait while two companies make the nets.
Mr Wright told AAP on Monday it will take a month to make an 800-metre net for Ballina, and three or four more days to transport it from where it is being made in Western Australia and install it.
"I can't see it being in the water until mid-January at the earliest," Cr Wright said.
"We've got to sweat and wait for these shark barriers.
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"I want it as soon as possible."
Without barrier nets over the holiday season, Cr Wright said beaches will be patrolled as normal by surf lifesavers and aerial monitors in helicopters.
The eco-barrier nets are an improvement on traditional shark nets used in Australia because they stretch from seabed to surface and shoreline to shoreline.
They are made of thick, rigid nylon that does not trap marine wildlife, as the older nets tend to do.
The new nets are part of the NSW government's $16 million shark strategy to protect swimmers and surfers from shark attacks.
Other measures in the strategy include drum lines, shark tagging and listening devices, to keep beachgoers abreast of where sharks are via updates on Twitter.
At least 14 shark attacks have been recorded in NSW this year, nine of them along a 70km stretch of coast from Evans Head to Byron Bay.
Fifty-one beaches in NSW are protected by traditional shark nets, with the furthest north being in the Hunter region.
