How to stay safe when swimming at unpatrolled beaches in NSW

There are about 892 beaches in NSW — and just 129 are patrolled. Since the start of summer, there has been six coastal drownings and experts warn of the risk of more deaths unless swimmers learn how to stay safe.

Just one in seven NSW beaches is patrolled, leading to a call from prominent beach safety experts for authorities to “think outside the flags” and for lifesavers to engage novel solutions.

Whether it’s the lure of picture perfect Insta-famous beaches, the desire for a secluded location to escape the crowds post-Covid, or simply convenience, more of us are dipping our toes into uncharted waters than ever before.

Yet it’s inherently risky. Of the 141 coastal drowning deaths across Australia in the 2021/22 financial year — 55 in NSW — around half occurred more than 5km from a surf lifesaving service.

There have been six coastal drownings across the state since the start of summer, and 19 nationwide — all of which occurred outside patrolled areas or hours.

With a month of summer holidays to go, police and lifesavers are urging beachgoers to “swim between the flags” where possible — and pay close attention to conditions where there are no flags.

UNSW coastal scientist Professor Rob Brander, aka Dr Rip. Picture: Regi Varghese

Know the location of nearby safety devices, just in case. Picture: AAP

UNSW coastal scientist Professor Rob Brander — widely known as Dr Rip — also warned of the danger of “bystander drownings”, where well-meaning family members or even strangers rush in to help others struggling in the surf.

NSW Police officer Sergeant Peter Stone died on New Year’s Day while heroically saving his 14-year-old son from a rip at Bogola Beach, near Narooma, while a 42-year old Sydney man lost his life on Tuesday after trying to save his teenage daughter caught in a rip off a mid-north coast beach.

Hero dad Peter Stone drowned after rescuing his 14-year-old son.

On Monday, a Brazilian man, believed to be a holiday-maker, drowned on a dangerous stretch of Byron beach, and a friend who tried to rescue him was hospitalised.

“Bystander or rescuer drownings happen a lot — we’ve seen in the past week two terrible drownings where fathers have gone in to save their child and lost their own lives,” Prof Brander said.

“That’s a parent’s instinct and it’s absolutely heroic — but it’s important that if you see a family member or stranger in trouble you take a second to look around.

“Get someone to raise the alarm and find something that floats — a boogie board, a ball, an esky lid — whatever you can take with you to hold onto, and to allow the other person in trouble to hold onto to ensure a more successful rescue.

“The best thing to do when caught in a rip is relax and float, so you can conserve energy and signal for help. Rips won’t drag you under the water and they won’t take you across the ocean, they are just taking you for a ride and will generally recirculate you back into shallow water.”

In NSW there are about 892 recorded beaches and just 129, or 14 per cent, of them are patrolled.

The number of patrolled beaches varies widely across regions — from 21 on Sydney’s northern beaches to just eight on the mid-north coast, which contains holiday hot spots such as Hat Head and South West Rocks.

Just nine are patrolled on the south coast, home to world-famous beaches such as Honeymoon Bay and Hyams Beach.

Tourism campaigns may entice visitors to head to the state’s pristine beaches, such as Shoalhaven Tourism’s 100 Beach Challenge, but the real challenge may be finding a patrolled beach, with just 10 along that particular 170km stretch of coastline.

According to Surf Life Saving Australia, only 42 per cent of beachgoers swim at a patrolled beach during patrol hours, and only 46 per cent of beachgoers always look for rip currents before entering the water.

The only airline to feature surf safety messages on its flights, both domestic and international, is Virgin Australia.

“The ‘swim between the red and yellow flags’ is an important message and we should keep pushing that, but we also need to give beachgoers something further, as more people are going to beaches they may not be familiar with, many of them unpatrolled,” Professor Brander said.

“At UNSW we conducted a survey last year which asked people why they went to unpatrolled beaches and the reasons were varied.

“Some had found out about a location on social media, others chose a beach due to the wind or surf conditions, but two main reasons that those surveyed gave was that the beach was the closest to their accommodation, and that they wanted to find somewhere away from the crowds.”

For beachgoer Nikki Stewart, a walk along the notorious and unpatrolled Puckey’s Beach at North Wollongong was enough this week, with waves crashing down and plenty of warning signs.

Nikki Stewart, who almost drowned in the ocean as a child, is extremely careful about beach swimming with her children (from left) Mason, Evie and Blake. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Ms Stewart usually takes her three youngest children — Blake, Mason and Evie — to Port Kembla beach, which is patrolled, but on regular holidays down the south coast patrolled locations are few and far between.

She knows the dangers, having almost drowned at East Corrimal beach when she was eight.

“I got caught in a freak rip and fortunately the beach was patrolled and mum swam out to me along with a lifeguard,” she said.

“So I’m always extra careful with my kids. We go down the coast to Burrill Lake and there’s not many patrolled beaches around.

“I let them play on the sand and run through the water close to shore, with an adult next to them, but we (restrict) swimming to safer areas like lakes and pools.”

In an average summer season, volunteer lifesavers perform about 4000 rescues, but in the space of seven days between this Christmas and New Year, there were almost 1200 rescues.

Surf Life Saving NSW CEO Steven Pearce said after bushfires, Covid and consecutive La Nina cycles, the festive season forecast of hot, dry weather had put life savers on alert.

“We knew we were gearing up for an extra-busy summer, and we haven’t seen visitation rates to beaches like this for several years,” he said.

“We can’t have a patrol at every beach location, but there are other ways we are working to respond and protect people at unpatrolled and remote locations — which are some of the most dangerous locations due to the conditions and the difficulty accessing them in an emergency.”

One of the Emergency Response Beacons (ERB) being rolled out in NSW. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Ahead of this summer, $1 million was allocated to purchase 11 new jet skis and 11 emergency response 4WDs, which have been delivered to each surf life saving branch up and down the state’s coastline.

For the first time, SLSNSW has also temporarily relocated about 80 metropolitan-based volunteer lifesavers to regional locations including Hat Head, Shoalhaven Heads and Narooma to bolster patrolling capacity.

And the rollout of Emergency Rescue Beacons (ERBs) continues at the most high risk unpatrolled locations in NSW — 20 have been installed so far including at Puckey’s which has been the site of drownings, with a further 12 currently being positioned.

“If someone sees someone in trouble they can activate these beacons and talk directly to state operations centre staff in Belrose, who will activate the camera to see what’s happening and give instructions while organising support,” Mr Pearce said.

“That might be diverting lifesavers from patrolled areas on jet skis or inflatable rescue boats, or calling in rescue helicopters or other emergency services.

“These have proved a real winner this summer already. In November two men in their twenties were rescued at a notorious drowning spot, Dreamtime Beach on the far north coast, after one of their girlfriend’s activated the ERB.

“A member of the public retrieved the angel ring flotation device attached to the beacon and went into the water to attempt to save one of the men; the second man was rescued by a lifeguard aboard a surf rescue jet ski from a nearby beach.”

SLSNSW also has a team of 400 drone pilots which fly up and down the coast, firstly for shark surveillance but also to look out for swimmers in distress.

And the emergency service is currently undertaking a major project which will see high-resolution aerial images taken at every unpatrolled beach across the state, to assess patterns in visitation and conditions – to assess the risk of injury and drowning at each of these beaches.

“This audit of every beach will allow us to determine what resources we need to put at these beaches — what signage, what technology, what personnel — to improve safety and reduce injury and drownings,” Mr Pearce said.

Prof Brander said the key for swimmers was to stop, look and plan when arriving at a beach location.

“Stop and think about beach safety — look for potential hazards, think about conditions relative to your swimming ability,” he said.

“Look and plan: Is there a boogie board or other flotation device on beach, is there someone who can go for help?

“We need to instil this stuff into our culture – we don’t cross the road without stopping and looking for vehicles, we shouldn’t go to the beach without stopping and thinking about beach safety.”

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