Because of the warm ocean in the area fed by the East Coast current which flows down from the tropical regions it is possible to swim all year round.

[citation needed] 36% of the population of South West Rocks are over 65 and the town has an average age of 56 as of the 2016 Australian census.

However, by 1889, South West Rocks had established itself as a popular bathing resort with people of the Macleay Valley.

[10] Some of the heaviest rainfall received at South West Rocks is quite often received from weather systems known as "East Coast Low Pressure systems" also known as "Mid Latitude Cyclones" not to be confused with Tropical Cyclones which are formed by different type of convection currents.

Tropical cyclones which form further to the north have been known to impact on the area occasionally but this has only happened on an about half a dozen occasions over the last 100 years.

The South West Rocks News was once printed as a cover page to the Tuesday edition of The Macleay Valley Argus.

A weekly free paper The Mid Coast Observer[12] and magazine the Macleay Valley Happynings are home delivered every Wednesday to households within South West Rocks.

Radio signals are able to be received from multiple locations, including; Port Macquarie, Kempsey, and Coffs Harbour.

Development in the town has increased from the turn of the 21st century, with The Rocks Central Shopping Centre opening in 2002, and an adjacent housing subdivision known as Oceanside.

In 2023, the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales ruled in favour of a residential project proceeding on the basis of a development application originally applied for in 1993.