As Australian summers continue to get hotter, sadly Australia has also experienced an increase in drowning deaths. With waterways such as pools, rivers and beaches so easily accessible on the Sunshine Coast, providing children with quality swimming lessons, skills in survival, water safety, and basic rescue are vital. Sunshine Beach State School learners take part in learn to swim, survival and water safety lessons using the facilities and qualified staff at Noosa Aquatic Centre.
Learning to swim is a fun and healthy life skill with many benefits. It helps to keep children’s’ heart and lungs healthy, improves strength, flexibility, balance and posture, and is a fun opportunity to make friends and grow in confidence. Co-ordination and motor skills are enhanced, and children who participate are also taught survival skills around the water.
Tragically, according to the Annual National Downing Report released by Royal Life Saving Society Australia and Surf Life Saving Australia, there were 276 drowning deaths in Australian waterways between July 2018 and June 2019. This is a 10% increase in drowning deaths across the nation in the previous year. Overall, 101 drowning deaths occurred in inland waterways and 31 in swimming pools. There were 122 coastal drowning deaths, which includes 71 on beaches, 22 at rock/cliff locations and 18 offshore. Coastal drowning deaths in the past year had increased and were above the 15‐year average.
Numerous reasons form part of the explanation for these tragic increases including poor swimming ability which continues to impact drowning rates.
At Sunshine Beach State School learning to swim and developing skills in water safety is considered extremely important as so many of our families spend so much time enjoying spending time at beaches, waterways and pools. With so many beautiful beaches and waterways on the Sunshine Coast, being able to swim is an essential part of life.
Year 5 students, Avalon and Teal, enjoy participating in swimming lessons.
“We have a pool at home and we spend a lot of time in it when it is hot.
“I really like swimming lessons because I know I am getting better as a swimmer and it is a nice thing to do when it is so hot,” Teal said.
Avalon, who moved from Europe, is enjoying Noosa’s beaches.
“My family are from the Netherlands and when we came to Noosa to live we loved the beaches.
“We really like to go swimming and surfing at the beach, lots of my friends are from other parts of the world where families wouldn’t do so much swimming so I think learning to swim is very important for everyone, especially if you live in Australia,” Avalon said.
Surf Life Saving Australia continues to encourage people to swim during patrol times at patrolled beaches and between the red and yellow flags. They also remind us all that it is vitally important that responsible adults are aware of conditions, the limitations of their children’s skills and fitness level, and remain constantly vigilant in supervising their children around all water environments. Teaching children to swim and basic water safety may not only save their life, but also someone else’s.
