A woman has drowned while swimming at Gordons Bay in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, while a man in his 60s died while surfing on the New South Wales south coast on Monday.
It has been a deadly summer in the water around Australia. At least 30 people have drowned across the country this summer, according to Royal Life Saving Australia’s national drowning toll.
And in NSW alone, in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, more than 1,200 people had to be rescued.
At Gordons Bay – between Clovelly and Coogee beaches in Sydney’s eastern suburbs – a woman was pulled unconscious from the water about 1.40pm on Monday after appearing to have suffered a medical episode.
Emergency services tried to resuscitate the 47-year-old woman but she couldn’t be revived.
Gordons Bay, which is popular with swimmers and snorkellers, is unpatrolled by surf lifesavers but is listed among the least hazardous beaches in Sydney on the BeachSafe website.
Further south, a surfer died after being pulled from the water in Jervis Bay.
Emergency services were called to Caves Beach, after reports a surfer was brought to the shore by surfers and swimmers, and was unresponsive.
NSW Ambulance paramedics performed CPR but the 62-year-old could not be revived.
Officers attached to the south coast police district and Australian federal police attended.
Reports on both deaths will be prepared for the coroner.
Across Australia, there have been a spate of drownings in rivers and at beaches, including several drownings of people who had gone into waters to rescue stricken family members.
In Narooma, on NSW’s south coast, police sergeant Peter Stone, 45, drowned while rescuing his 14-year-old son from a rip on 1 January.
Stone managed to push his son to safety, but he did not survive, despite the efforts of lifesavers who performed CPR.
On 3 January another man, 42, died after trying to rescue his teenage daughter from a rip at Black Head, 75km south of Port Macquarie.
A nearby surfer took the girl to shore and returned to bring the man back to the beach. Bystanders performed CPR until paramedics arrived but he could not be revived.
And on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula on the evening of 6 January, a 20-year-old man and his 16-year-old brother got into trouble swimming at Gunnamatta Beach.
Seeing they were struggling in heavy surf and strong winds, the boys’ father swam out to assist them. Emergency services rescued the father and his younger son, but the older son has not been found, despite an extensive search over the weekend.
Amy Peden, a water safety expert and researcher at the University of New South Wales, said said bystander drownings often involved a parent trying to help a child.
She said “a few different things can go wrong” to put a rescuer into an unsafe situation, but typically they simply become exhausted.
“The adrenaline wears off, the exhaustion kicks in, the effort it takes to get out to someone – to make sure they’re OK and keep them above water, the exertion of it, with people grabbing on to you – is too much,” she said.
Peden said it was natural for parents not to think twice before entering the water to try to rescue a child – “in the heat of the moment” – but taking a moment to consider the rescue was vital.
Peden urged potential rescuers to call for help if there were other people present. Then, crucially, if entering the water, “taking something that floats – a boogie board, a pool noodle, an esky, they might have a two-litre bottle of drinking water – anything that can hold air”.
“You’ll need that flotation when you perform the rescue,” she said.
