Geelong nurse tried to save drowning girls near Ocean Grove

A Geelong nurse who desperately tried to save two drowning girls near Ocean Grove has detailed the moments before tragedy struck.

Ocean Grove mother Elise Van Wegen.

A mother who risked her own life to try and save two drowning girls at an Ocean Grove beach has given harrowing details about the final moments before tragedy struck.

Elise Van Wegen, 35, was running her dog with headphones in near Collendina Beach when she was stopped by two women screaming “two girls are drowning, can you help them?”.

The Geelong nurse leapt into the surf and managed to reach the pair some 100m off the shoreline in what witnesses have described as treacherous swimming conditions.

“I thought ‘I’m a nurse, I know first aid so I’ll give it a crack’,” she said.

A girl has tragically died at Ocean Grove beach in the first week of the school holidays.

Ms Van Wegen managed to reach them but the surf “was just too rough”.

“I got to both of them and they were conscious, they were talking and they were looking at me,” she said.

“I was holding them with my hands and then the waves just separated us all.

“I was trying to hold on to them.”

A 12-year-old girl drowned as a result of the tragedy.

“I could hear her yelling out ‘I’m drowning’,” she said.

Ms Van Wegen said another man, who she described as “a hero”, emerged in the water and managed to get one of the girls to shore.

“He’s a hero. He got one in,” she said.

The mother-of-two, who has lived in Ocean Grove for 35 years, said she had been left “completely devastated” by the tragedy.

She was taken to Geelong hospital in ambulance alongside the 13-year-old survivor and the other rescuer before being released on Wednesday morning.

“Because I’m a nurse I’m good at compartmentalising, but it’s very traumatic,” she said.

“I also could have left my own family without me, so there is a lot of emotions.

“The poor girl and her family.”

Collendina Beach is known for it’s unpredictable conditions.

Other beach goers reported seeing “very rough” conditions in the surf on Tuesday around the time of the tragedy,” believed to be sometime after 5.30pm.

The surf is known to produce rips and was not patrolled by the Ocean Grove Surf Life Saving Club.

“It was a bit rough and I thought it looked extremely dodgy,” one witness said.

“Big swell and cross shore wind that was pretty strong. Mid-tide going out at the time the incident occurred.

“Collendina is not a great spot for kids to swim unless it’s calm, it has rips and can be very rough.”

Victoria Police will prepare a report for the coroner.

Originally published as Geelong nurse tried to save drowning girls near Ocean Grove