Three people killed over Australia Day long-weekend

Soaring temperatures and a public holiday long weekend proved a deadly combination with a Nepalese national drowning and another man’s body being found in a Shoalhaven river last night.

• Cool change on the way after hot long-weekend

Soaring temperatures and a public holiday long weekend proved a deadly combination with a Nepalese national drowning and the recovery of another man’s body after he went missing in a Shoalhaven River.

The latest water tragedies rounded out a dreadful Australia Day weekend with a spate of deaths, including a young girl hit and killed by a car driven by her father on the South Coast.

At Bents Basin, south of Penrith, three Nepalese men got into trouble at 11.30am on Sunday among more than 150 swimmers seeking refuge from the scorching heat.

The 25-year-old’s two friends were rescued by those swimming nearby while he vanished underneath the water.

His body was recovered by divers two hours after he went missing.

Police recovered the body of the Nepalese national hours after he went missing. Picture: TNV

Distraught family and friends at Bents Basin. Picture: TNV

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Brad was swimming with his family when he heard screams.

“We were swimming and suddenly we heard all this screaming. There was a big scramble to get everyone out (of the water),” he said.

On Sunday night police found the body of a man , 27, who disappeared underwater from an inflatable mattress in the Kangaroo River near a Bendeela campground just after 3.40pm.

There have been more than 80 drownings nationally this summer — a third of them in NSW.

Royal Life Saving Society Justin Scarr CEO said more had to be done to educate migrant swimmers about the dangers of the water.

“Tragically this is the third drowning of a Nepalese person in as many weeks and I know the Nepalese community is deeply concerned about tragedies,” he said.

“Often the flat, still, calm appearances of an inland waterway lulls people into a false sense of security because the water is often murky and people can’t see the bottom.”

Six Nepalese nationals have drowned since December 2016.

A 17-month-old girl and a 28-year-old woman died in separate incidents at Lake Conjola.

Meanwhile, a three-year-old boy remains in a critical condition at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead after his mother found him at the bottom of their pool in the Hunter Valley on Saturday.

Lake Conjola on the state’s South Coast was hit by two deaths within half an hour of each other.

A 17-month-old girl died after being struck by a Holden Trax SUV driven by her father, 27, at the Holiday Haven caravan park at 3.40pm on Saturday.

Just 20 minutes later, a woman, 28, was killed after falling from a boat before being struck by the same vessel on Lake Conjola.