Stark warning for summer

Phillip Island’s summer season is off to a grim start, with one swimmer rescued from a rip and another drowned in two separate incidents on the weekend.

The events are a harsh reminder of how dangerous and unpredictable our oceans can be.

Water Police rescued a 19-year-old man after he was caught in a rip at Forrest Caves on Friday.

On Sunday evening, family and bystanders pulled a young woman from the surf at Smiths Beach. She was unresponsive when emergency crews arrived and tragically died at the scene.

Both incidents occurred on non-patrolled beaches.

A spokesperson from Lifesaving Victoria said Smiths Beach had been patrolled on Sunday, but the patrol finished around 6pm.

Acting Senior Sergeant Craig Van Breugal from Bass Coast Police said drownings were “unfortunately an all too common occurrence.”

With many beaches across the island unpatrolled, he urged people to only swim at patrolled beaches, between the flags.

“Not being familiar with the local conditions can make swimming very dangerous,” he said.

Drownings up

According to the 2018/19 Drowning Report from Life Saving Victoria, 57 people drowned in Victoria last year.

This was the state’s highest toll in more than two decades.

The statistics also showed a 77 per cent increase in the drowning rate of people aged 15 – 24 years.

Forty-one per cent of the fatalities occurred in a beach, bay or ocean.

Life Saving Victoria said on average, 630 people are rescued by lifesavers on patrolled beaches each year.

The 2019/20 Drowning Report is due out this week.

Black spot on beaches

Bass Coast Shire is considered one of the state’s key blackspot drowning locations, along with Mornington Peninsula and Surf Coast.

In conjunction with Life Saving Victoria, a coastal risk assessment including 48 beaches and 70 km of coastline was conducted in 2019.

The report delivered to Bass Coast Shire Council, Phillip Island Nature Parks and Parks Victoria recommended key improvements including:

• Standardising beach safety signage across the region to meet Australian Water safety signs and beach safety standard
• Implementing a process for continuous monitoring and review of hazards, to ensure that new hazards are detected and managed and linked to modification or maintenance of existing action plans
• Undertaking ongoing reporting to communicate the risk mitigation activities and outcomes, providing information to inform decision-making, improve risk management activities and facilitate interaction with stakeholders

When contacted this week, Bass Coast Shire Council was unable to provide an update on actions from the report before deadline.

However a spokesperson said: “With the approaching summer holiday season, Council is again working with other agencies such as Surf Life Saving Victoria and Phillip Island Nature Parks to share community messaging about staying safe by the water.

“We always recommend swimming at a patrolled beach between the flags and to learn how to recognise dangers, such as rips.”

Swim between the flags

Local patrols by members of the Woolamai Beach Surf Life Saving Club at Cape Woolamai returned over the weekend, running from 1pm – 4.30pm on Saturdays and 10.30am – 4.30pm on Sundays.

Patrols at Smiths Beach are scheduled based on availability of volunteers.

The 2020 summer season for paid Lifeguard Services by Life Saving Victoria will operate at Smiths Beach and Cowes from December 26 until January 26, and February 6 respectively.

Paid patrols will run at Woolamai Beach from December 29 until February 6, 2021.