Footloose - Death by Drowning (April 2005)

Return to main Footloose Page

It’s been a shocking summer down in Victoria. First there was the tragedy in the Grampians where a family lost four members after a young girl fell or entered the water at MacKenzie Falls. The father and two uncles, all of whom couldn’t swim, jumped in to rescue the girl, but all drowned!

A few days later another family was devastated when a grandmother tripped and fell into the water while walking across rocks between Middle and Merri islands off Stingray Bay near Warrnambool. When the family rushed to rescue her, a so-called ‘freak wave’ washed the whole family of three adults and five kids into the sea; only three children survived!

While both are terrible family disasters both will add to the growing number of drowning deaths that occur each year in Australia. Here’s the latest grim toll that I have figures for from the Royal Life Saving Society’s (RLSS), 2004 National Drowning Report. A total of 277 people drowned in Australia in the 2003-04 financial year. Of those 212 were male (77%) while 59 were female (21%). In six cases the gender was un-recorded.

The majority of drowning deaths (105) occurred in rivers, oceans or harbours. This figure is an increase on the overall ‘five year average’, of 98, which statisticians use in measuring this grim toll.

The number of drownings (42) occurring in swimming pools increased during the same year, while drownings in dams and lakes fell; the latter decrease probably more a result of the drought that has wracked rural Australia, than anything else.

The main activities people were undertaking when drowning occurred, as you’d probably expect, were swimming and leisure activity where 97 deaths were recorded. The category ‘falling into the water’ was the next greatest killer (60 deaths)! This may seem a high figure, but both the recent Victorian family drownings involved just such a scenario.

The 0-5 year age bracket recorded 40 deaths. The majority of theses deaths (62%) were, again, the result of the child wandering or falling into the water where farm dams, baths and swimming pools were the big killer.

The 6-14 year age bracket recorded the lowest number of drownings with just 8 deaths, while the 15-34 year age bracket recorded 75 deaths. The majority of these deaths occurred when the victim was swimming or undertaking leisure activities, or again fell in the water.

For many of us in the older age groups, who may think it is the younger members of our society most at risk, need to think again. From 35 years and upwards the statistics show this older group makes up 53% of the total deaths. The 35-54 year age bracket represented the largest group with 78 fatalities, while the 55+year age bracket recorded 69 deaths. Of these figures 80% were males.

Still, the drowning rate per 100,000 people has decreased slightly for the ‘five year average’ from 1.56 to 1.39, but the RLSS believe the real challenge is to get that figure to zero, as they believe, every drowning death is preventable!

Obviously there’s a lot more work to be done to get the ‘death by drowning’ figure down to zero and while we are talking dry, boring statistics here, the reality is it could be you, or me, or our family, or our friends, involved! As four wheelers traveling to remote areas where most of us prefer to camp beside the sea or a stream if possible, the chances of us being directly involved in an incident, greatly increases.

And age, as you’ve seen from the above, is no deterrent!

So what to do?

The most important: teach the kids to swim, supervise them and learn resuscitation!

As well, check out the RLSS’s excellent website: swimandsurvive, which has some great safety tips for those days spent on the beach, down on the farm, in the bush, whether swimming, surfing or fishing. The life it saves may just be your own!

Return to main Footloose Page