TRANSCRIPT:
The National Drowning Report has just been published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.
And it's not good news.
The research by The Royal Life Saving Society Australia, in partnership with Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) , has identified an increased risk of drowning during holidays and long weekends.
Surf Lifesaving's researcher Dr Jasmin Lawes says there's an urgent need for people to include water safety in their plans for a day out.
"Tragically, this report come about because 281 people have lost their lives due to drowning in the past 12 months. The risk of drowning more than doubles on public holidays, and even higher than that, for long weekends our research has shown. But that's because people are going out having a great time and not necessarily taking the time to stop and look for the look for the dangers or hazards or look for rip currents. You're not spending the time checking for other hazards that may be around. And they haven't necessarily thought about the best way to plan how to stay safe."
The report has found a 33 per cent drop in drowning deaths among children aged 0 to 4 years old compared to the 10-year average.
Justin Scarr is the CEO of The Royal Life Saving Society Australia.
He says they want to see these figures drop even further.
"Child drowning continues to reduce in this country, we've reduced drowning about 53 per cent over the last 20 years, particularly under the age of five through backyard pool fencing and campaigns like the Keep Watch program. 16 though it's way too many, we need to work harder. It's one area of water safety where we think we can get close to zero."
But the numbers of beach drowning deaths are still 29 percent above the 10-year average, with rip currents being the main coastal risk.
What worries safety experts the most is an apparent increase in drowning deaths in all age groups over 45.
Dr Lawes says 57 percent of fatal accidents have occurred in this demographic.
"Normally, it's our young men who are at high risk demographic, however, again, we're just seeing slight changes, where for people who are aged 45 years and older actually accounted for more than half of the drowning deaths that we recorded. A range of factors could contribute to the drowning and older adults. And this could be, it could include an underlying heart or medical conditions. Also, perhaps not knowing your limits when you're going out or not being prepared when you do go out for a day on the water."
The research has also made some troubling findings about the risk to those who live in remote areas.
They are almost twice as likely to drown.
"Often if you don't have access to resources, such as swimming or even having the experiences to in different environments, it does actually play its place you're at risk, because you're not you're not familiar with the risk or what the behaviours that you need to have to stay safe."
Experts have called for what they call a "stop, look and plan" approach to reduce the death toll.
Dr Katrien Pickles from Royal Life Saving Australia says that is a way of convincing the community to take water safety into their own hands.
"Always supervise children in on and around the water, learn Swimming and Water Safety and life saving skills. So that could be going to a swimming lesson or going to your local pool and just getting back into swimming some maps and increasing your swimming fitness. And then making sure you wear a life jacket when you're boating, rock fishing, or paddling, swimming at a patrolled beach between the red and yellow flags of waiting alcohol and drugs around water and then checking the condition. So using a weather app or going online to check the weather forecasts."
Federal Minister for Sport Anika Wells says the government supports the idea of greater water safety awareness, especially as summer approaches.
"There will be significant challenges when our days start to heat up next month. That is needed because to be in the water is to be Australian. I and many others had the privilege of childhood memories soaked in salty ocean water. We live under the sunburn skies but our love of ocean and our love of backyard poolside barbies of jumping into fresh creeks, and swimming under waterfalls does carry major risk. We must do more to assess to understand and to acknowledge those risks."
