Christmas horror: Toddler found floating in Western Downs pool

A Pittsworth man has been rushed to hospital after he almost drowned - the news comes after a toddler was pulled from a Dalby pool during a spate of chilling water incidents, which have left three Queensland families with empty chairs at the Christmas table.

Queensland Ambulance Service generic ambulance. Picture: Dominic Elsome

As Queenslanders took to the water over the Christmas period a number of drowning incidents occurred across the state on the Western Downs, Brisbane, Gold Coast, and the Fraser Coast.

Sadly, a one-year-old child and two teenage boys died in three separate incidents during a spate of drownings occurring over a four-day period.

The toddler drowned in a pool at a unit complex on the Gold Coast on Saturday afternoon, and a 14-year-old was killed in a boating accident on the Mary River near Maryborough late Sunday morning.

A body has been located in the Mary River at Owanyilla (Fraser Coast) following a search and rescue operation to locate a missing 14-year-old boy. Picture: QPS

A Western Downs family held each other a little closer on Christmas after a little girl almost drowned in a pool on Saturday night.

Paramedics were called to a private residence in Dalby where the girl was submerged in a pool.

A Queensland Ambulance spokeswoman said paramedics stabilised the child and rushed her to the Dalby Hospital about 6.46pm.

The spokeswoman said paramedics were also called to Pittsworth on Christmas Day.

“A stable patient was transported to Toowoomba Hospital following a post-immersion incident at a private address at 9am,” she said.

Another toddler was involved in a near-drowning incident at Wisemans Ferry in New South Wales on The Central Coast.

A critical care helicopter transported the child to hospital in a stable condition after she was pulled from the river where she was swimming with family.

More Australians are drowning in incidents at rivers and creeks than in the ocean.. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

In the lead-up to the holiday period, on December 21, a teenage boy died at a swimming hole west of Brisbane at Kholo Creek in Mount Crosby.

A search and rescue team was called in to retrieve the boy’s body.

The Royal Life Saving Society Queensland’s 2023 National Drowning Report found more Australians were drowning in incidents at rivers and creeks than in the ocean.

Over the past financial year, 61 people drowned in Australian waterways, of those, six were children under the age of five.