Latest news with #RoyalLifeSavingAustralia
The Guardian
21-04-2025
- The Guardian
Nine-year-old boy dies at popular NSW holiday spot amid spate of drownings over Easter long weekend
A nine-year-old boy has died after becoming trapped between rocks at a popular holiday spot on the New South Wales mid-north coast, amid a spate of drowning deaths over Easter. Police and other emergency services tried to free the boy from the site at South West Rocks on Sunday afternoon, but he died at the scene. Surf Life Saving NSW chief executive Steven Pearce said crews had also taken part in countless rescues as hordes of holiday-makers made their way to the coast, as powerful swells pounded beaches. 'It's extremely tragic, its the worst drownings we've seen on the Easter long weekend,' he told ABC Radio on Monday. Meanwhile, rescue crews in NSW and Victoria have resumed their search for two men missing since Friday. The men, a 24-year-old man who was swept off the rocks by a large wave at Little Bay in Sydney's eastern suburbs and a 41-year-old man exploring the beach near San Remo in Victoria, haven't been spotted after the incidents. The older man was with a group of fellow Chinese nationals living in Pakenham when three of the friends were knocked into the water by a wave. One woman was rescued, but the missing man's wife drowned. Victoria police said the search was continuing on Monday. Emergency services were also called to Wattamolla in Sydney's Royal National Park at 11am on Sunday following reports that two people were swept off the rocks while fishing. Two men were found floating face down in the water and were winched to safety, but one was unable to be revived and died at the scene. A 58-year-old fisherman also died after being swept into water at Wollongong harbour on Friday morning. Another man drowned at Mosman on Sydney's north shore on Friday morning. Crews were also called to Green Cape near Eden on the NSW south coast about 3pm on Friday following reports of a fisherman being swept off rocks into the water. Authorities later found a body in the water. Australians have been urged to take care on the water during the remainder of the long weekend. Prime minister Anthony Albanese said his thoughts were with those who had lost loved-ones. 'Australians love the water, we love the surf,' he said from the southern NSW coastal town of Bateman's Bay. 'Please, everyone, be careful. Families in particular, to be careful of your kids.' Royal Life Saving Australia chief executive Justin Carr said the tragic events happened in extreme weather conditions when people had often put themselves in danger. Those activities included walking along rocky shelves, getting too close to the water to take pictures of the storm swell and rock fishing when it wasn't safe to do so. An average of six people have drowned each Easter long weekend over the past 20 years, according to the organisation.
New York Times
20-04-2025
- Climate
- New York Times
6 Killed as Giant Waves Batter Australia
At least six people died in Australia as towering waves battered Sydney and other places along the country's east coast over the Easter holiday weekend, the police said. A low pressure system brought powerful surf starting Friday, and waves taller than 24 feet were recorded off the coast of Brisbane in the state of Queensland on Friday, according to government data. Australia's meteorological agency had issued a warning for hazardous surf for a long stretch of coast from Queensland to New South Wales that includes Sydney, Byron Bay and the Gold Coast, and cautioned that conditions could be dangerous for rock fishing, boating and swimming. By the time the hazardous surf warning was lifted on Sunday, five people had died in New South Wales, including in Sydney, and another in the state of Victoria, officials said. Another two people were missing. On Sunday morning, a man who was fishing in Wattamolla, about 20 miles south of Sydney, died after being swept into the sea, the New South Wales police said. A 14-year-old boy who was with him was rescued from the water and hospitalized in stable condition. The man was the fifth to drown in the state since Friday, according to the New South Wales police. All five deaths, between New South Wales' south coast and northern Sydney, were of men who the police believed were fishing or walking on rocks along the coast when they fell or were swept into the ocean. Another man remained missing after he was swept into the ocean while walking with friends on rocks at Little Bay Beach in Sydney on Friday, the police said on Saturday. According to Royal Life Saving Australia, a nonprofit that promotes water safety, 128 people drowned in New South Wales in 2024. Around half of those drownings occurred along coastlines. In Victoria, a woman died on Friday morning after being washed off rocks in San Remo, a town on the state's southern coast, the state police said. Another man and woman were also swept away. The woman made her way back to shore, but the man was still missing.
The Guardian
18-04-2025
- The Guardian
Woman dead and man missing after being swept from rocks near popular coastal walk in Victoria
A woman has died and a man is missing after they were swept from rocks near a popular coastal walk. Emergency workers were called to a beach off Punch Bowl Road near San Remo, 125km south-east of Melbourne, on Friday morning after reports three people were washed into the water. One woman managed to get back to shore while an aerial search found a second woman unresponsive in the water. She could not be revived. A search was continuing for the man. Punchbowl Rocks beach is near the George Bass coastal walk and surrounded by high bluffs, reefs and rocks. Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter The incident followed a fisher dying after being swept into water at Wollongong harbour on Friday morning. Emergency services were called to Endeavour Drive about 6.15am after reports a man was pulled from the water unconscious. The 58-year-old could not be revived. He had been fishing on a rock wall nearby when he was swept into the water, police believe. Separate reports will be prepared for the coroner on both deaths. Australians have been urged to take care on the water during the long weekend. Over the past 20 years, 118 Australians have drowned during Easter, according to Royal Life Saving Australia.
The Guardian
29-03-2025
- General
- The Guardian
‘This is Australia, we're surrounded by water': how a nation of strong swimmers is losing its way
Exhaustion follows panic as the victim's head dips below the surface. Unable to hold their breath any longer, a desperate, involuntary gasp for air sends water surging down their airways. Without oxygen, the heart stops within minutes. Drowning was the fate of 104 people who died in waterways and swimming pools across Australia this summer past. Beach drownings tarnished December. In February, the body of a nine-year-old girl was pulled from a backyard pool in south-west Sydney. Last week ambulances were dispatched to a dam north of Melbourne. A toddler was found unresponsive and could not be revived. Despite Australia's global reputation as a nation of swimmers and surfers, experts familiar with its public learn-to-swim sector – a 'safety net' that once ensured few Australian children forwent learning to swim – say its systemic erosion is leaving a growing number of people unprepared to safely navigate Australia's beaches and backyard pools. The consequences are as tragic as they are predictable: in the past decade, drowning rates have crept upwards, says Justin Scarr, the chief executive of Royal Life Saving Australia. A report authored by the organisation found nearly half of year six students can't swim 50m – the national benchmark and 'bare minimum' required to survive in the water and fully take part in the pleasures of Australia's water-borne society. From the 1880s swimming lessons were a mandated part of the Australian school curriculum. The responsibility of teaching every child to swim rested with their primary school, and local community. It was, according to Dr Steve Georgakis, a sports historian at the University of Sydney, a 'definer of what meant to be Australian'. When Georgakis was in year 7 in the early 1980s, his school principal led an excursion to Sydney's Coogee Bay. 'He hops out of his car, dives in at one end [of the bay] and says, 'Alright guys, see you at the other end',' Georgakis recalls. 'A hundred and twenty boys look at each other and then jump in – there were not real opt-outs back then.' Everybody took part at the annual school swimming carnival too; a rowdy day of shrieking and barracking to the backdrop of swimming races at the local pool, and an 'institution' of the education system that brought the whole community together. There were competitive races for budding athletes and novelty events for weaker swimmers. But today, those traditions have become dysfunctional or ended entirely. According to Royal Life Saving Australia, one in four schools do not hold swimming carnivals at all and, when they do, teachers say half of students no longer participate. Many schools discourage participation by running scaled-down after-school 'twilight' carnivals for competitive swimmers only. A patchwork of state government policy helps schools run lessons but in most cases a lack of funding renders these programs inadequate to teach a child how to swim on their own. Affluent private schools can fill the funding gap but disadvantaged schools go without, reflecting a broader 'residualisation' of Australia's increasingly inequitable education system, Georgakis says. 'Like a lot of things in our education system, ultimately, it's public school kids that are missing out,' he says. 'Swimming is becoming undemocratic, we are creating a class divide.' One-third of schools no longer provide any lessons at all, including Balmain Public School on Sydney Harbour. Trista Rose, the school's Parent and Citizens Association president, lost her cousin to drowning four decades ago. She has been lobbying the principal to reinstate lessons. 'Look at where we are, it's not really an optional thing,' she says. But for schools grappling with rising transport costs, a crowded curriculum, staff shortages and logistical hurdles, swimming programs are no longer a priority. 'It becomes very easy to say, 'you know what, if we don't hold a carnival or provide lessons, no one is going to care',' Georgakis says. At Thomas Mitchell Primary School on Melbourne's eastern fringe, migrant families from India and Pakistan are the norm. The school doesn't run a carnival but offers a 10-day intensive swim program to a few year groups each year, co-funded with a parent contribution of $146. About one-third of students opt-out, with more dropouts after the first few lessons. About one-third of drowning victims were born overseas, many from countries in Asia that lack a swimming culture. The school's principal, Kathie Arnold, says most pupils are not reaching the minimum swimming benchmarks. Set by the Royal Life Saving Australia, the benchmarks recommend that by the age of 12 not only should children be able to swim continuously for 50 metres, they should be able to tread water for two minutes. By age 17, 50% of students should be able to float or tread water for five minutes and swim continuously for 400 metres. But according to RLSA research, teachers report 'little improvement' in swimming skills in those five years. While the World Health Organization advocates for children aged six years and older to be taught basic swimming skills, Australia is one of a handful of wealthy countries to adopt a national standard. In the UK, by the end of primary school pupils are expected to be able to swim 25m. In Sweden the curriculum dictates that students can swim 200m. On Saturday morning a cacophony of yelps, squeals and splashes echo through the Nepean Aquatic Centre in Sydney's western suburbs. Patient parents sit on metal benches encircling a 25-metre indoor pool as children paddle through the water clinging to fluro green kickboards. The air is saturated by the smell of chlorine. With the erosion of robust learn-to-swim programs in schools, teaching a child to swim has become a parental responsibility; many enrol their children in private lessons once or twice a week, if they can afford to. Andrew Fleming watches his five-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter thrash about in the pool from a plastic chair by the diving boards. His daughter's school only runs a few lessons in the lead up to the swimming carnival. That makes private lessons a 'non-negotiable, it's something they have to do', he says. At $21 per group lesson, which are 30-45 minutes depending on the child's age and ability, the cost of lessons at this pool are relatively affordable – some centres charge about $35. Still, without the financial support of Fleming's in-laws, who pay for his children's lessons, 'we probably would have pulled them out a while ago', he says. In outer-suburban and regional areas where ageing infrastructure causes public pools to run at a loss, access is also a barrier. This area has one of the fewest number of public aquatic centres per capita, according to an analysis by Guardian Australia. High demand means the waitlist to enrol a child in a class can be up to six months and chronic teaching staff shortages mean the centre can't run more classes to keep up. In a smaller pool next door, toddlers as young as six months are guided through the pool by their parents and staff during early age water familiarisation classes. Miral Mavani, an Indian migrant, watches her three-year-old son and husband with a quiet enthusiasm. She never learnt to swim when she was a child but her son's progress has her considering taking up adult classes. 'This is Australia, we are surrounded by water, it's for our safety,' she says. Infant lessons have surged in popularity after an epidemic of child drownings in backyard pools the plagued Australia as private pool ownership began to rise in the 1970s. Pool fencing regulation did the most to reduce drownings but early-age water familiarisation was also cited as a solution. Scarr says these programs, while beneficial, have inadvertently deprioritised lessons for older primary school students (seven to 12 years old) who are old enough to develop survival swimming skills that stay with them for life. If children don't learn in that 'critical period' they're unlikely to ever learn, a problem exacerbated by pool closures during the Covid-19 pandemic. 'Parents are spending thousands on swimming lessons before the child starts school,' Scarr says. 'Many give up at the point, having assumed that the school can provide a safety net … school programs are fantastic and should be protected but they need more funding.' At Ashfield Aquatic Centre in Sydney's inner-west, Brian Quigley, 26, steadily freestyles his way up and down a 50m pool. The son of two Irish migrants, the first swimming classes Quigley took were a handful organised by his primary school. By then, his peers spent had spent years taking private lessons and were already competent swimmers. 'It was a box tick on the school's part, it wasn't enough to actually learn,' he says. At the annual swimming carnival he sunk into the bleachers and has spent most of his life avoiding confrontations with water. That was until he started volunteering at the State Emergency Services (SES), which responds to serve flooding events. 'If you want to do some of the high-octane rescue stuff, you want to be a good swimmer,' he says. With the help of friends and YouTube tutorials, he's been honing his technique. In a few months he will attempt an SES swim test that involves swimming 50m in uniform. 'I thought of swimming as something I would never do,' he says. 'But here I am.'
The Guardian
17-03-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Nearly half of Australia's year 6 students can't swim 50 metres or tread water for two minutes
Nearly half of all year 6 students are falling below Australian swimming and water safety benchmarks for their age group and their swimming skills are not improving in high school, new research shows. National guidelines recommend all Australians 'should be able to float or tread water for two minutes and swim continuously for 50 metres' by the age of 12. But Royal Life Saving Australia found teachers estimated that 48% of students were unable to perform these skills and 39% of students were still unable to by year 10. By age 17, the benchmark recommends 50% of students 'be able to float or tread water for five minutes and swim continuously for 400 metres' – but the report warned that teachers generally observed 'little improvement' in swimming skills after year 7. During the 2024-25 summer season, 104 people drowned in waterways and swimming pools across Australia, up by 5% from the previous summer, with a lack of swimming skills known to be a significant factor. Ten of these reported drownings were children under 14. The Royal Life Saving Australia chief executive, Dr Justin Scarr, said Australia, especially in the wake of disruptions during the Covid-19 pandemic, was at risk of 'creating a generation with extremely poor swimming skills'. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email He told Guardian Australia 'a range of factors' had contributed to the decline in skills, 'including that many parents enrolled their children young and at significant cost, which means that they finished way too early to develop a complex swimming and water safety skill set, which might include the ability to swim at least the length of the pool'. Many children stopped lessons between the ages of seven and nine, the research found, and one in 10 children between the ages of five and 14 had never had a swimming lesson. 'The financial cost of lessons excludes many people,' Scarr said. 'They're simply too expensive for many people, particularly those people living in outer metropolitan areas and in regional towns.' Another factor, Scarr said, was that many people assumed schools would provide a safety net in the form of swimming lessons. But while the report said school-based programs were offered in all states and territories, it noted 'the objectives, mode of delivery, reach, funding and successes varie[d] greatly'. The research showed 31% of schools did not offer learn-to-swim programs at all, citing cost, staffing shortages and time limitations as major barriers. It also found that one in four schools did not hold swimming carnivals and where they did take place, teachers reported that 50% of students did not participate. Dr Amy Peden, a senior research fellow at the University of NSW school of population health who specialises in drowning prevention, said the findings were not particularly surprising. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'We are seeing some kids missing out on swimming lessons altogether, either because they are not offered or they cannot afford it – or what seems to be the issue here is kids leaving swimming lessons before they can do these minimum skills, which are designed to keep them safe throughout their life,' she said. 'It is very concerning from a drowning prevention point of view that these kinds of minimum skills – and that's what they are: minimum – aren't even being met.' Noting that teacher respondents taking part in Royal Life Saving Australia's research came from all parts of the education system, including state schools, private schools and some regional schools, Scarr said opportunities to develop swimming skills at school were 'more likely depending on the economic means of the school'. 'You are much more likely to participate in swimming and water safety lessons in wealthier suburbs and private schools than you might in less economically advantaged suburbs,' he said. Royal Life Saving Australia advocated for four measures to ensure no child misses out on learning the swimming skills they need to survive: an increase in funding to existing schools and vacation programs; grants targeting people vulnerable to drowning; better access to lifesaving programs to boost water safety skills; and addressing infrastructure gaps by building and refurbishing public swimming pools and swim schools.
