Toll highlights need for safety awareness

Volunteers’ professional response helps prevent more loss of life.

Nine deaths along our coastline and a spike in the number of life-threatening emergencies involving people in the water across the peak summer season have drawn attention to the need for vigilance and safety awareness on and around our waterways.

MRNSW crews joined lengthy search operations for those missing in coastal waters and responded to a boating fatality on Lake Macquarie.

Seven of the nine men who died along the coastline were swept into the ocean from rock platforms and sea breakwalls, including five from the same rock platform below Hill 60 at Port Kembla in two separate incidents within the space of a month. Another was lost while snorkelling.

At least another 30 people ended up in the water offshore, on coastal bars and enclosed waters such as rivers when their boats or kayaks capsized or overturned or while rock fishing, including a man admitted to hospital in a critical condition after being washed off rocks in the Royal National Park.

Deputy Commissioner Alex Barrell said the number of fatalities and life-endangering emergencies highlighted the need for people to exercise caution around the water.

“NSW saw a terrible loss of life over summer but the toll could have been much higher, given the significant number of people who ended up in the water,” he said.

“The rapid and professional response of our crews and our emergency services colleagues, as well as Good Samaritan members of the public, ensured many lives were saved. The heavy workload of our volunteers is testament to their skill and dedication to saving lives and keeping boaters safe.”

He said boaters and others on and around the water needed to know the rules, take all appropriate safety measures and be vigilant about potential risks to their safety.

“The most fundamental rule, whether you’re boating, paddling or rock fishing, is to make sure you and everyone with you always wears a lifejacket. It can save your life but not if you don’t have it on,” he said.

“Boaters should make sure they have the required safety equipment, their vessel is in good nick, check the conditions and always Log On with Marine Rescue NSW.”

The week around the Australia Day public holiday was the most tragic of the summer.

Director Operations Andrew Cribb said MRNSW crews had played a pivotal role in extended multi-agency search operations over the week.

“These operations involve a heavy concentration of personnel and resources across the rescue services,” he said.

Emergency services were called to the Coffs Harbour breakwall about 6pm on January 21 in response to reports a man had disappeared while walking along the pathway. A short time later, a local family reported to police that their son, 20, had not returned home from a walk on the beachfront.

Crews from MR Coffs Harbour and Woolgoolga joined the largescale operation, searching south to Sawtell and up to 6nm out to sea. The young man’s body was located by family members on January 23.

A major emergency response began about 10pm on January 22, after several people were washed off rocks into the sea at Hill 60.

The bodies of three men were recovered a short time later. Two others made it back to shore with minor injuries.

With eyewitnesses unsure just how many people had been on the rocks in the darkness, a search was launched at daylight next day. Crews from MR Port Kembla and Shellharbour searched from Red Rock to Windang Island and up to 4nm out to sea with no one sighted.

Less than three weeks later, another two men died on February 12 when three were swept off the same rock platform. A Police Highway Patrol officer swam out to two of the men with a flotation device before a Surf Life Saving crew transferred the three to shore. One man died at the scene and the second in hospital.

Crews from MR Batemans Bay searched over two days for a snorkeller who entered the water at Richmond Beach in the Murramarang National Park on January 25 and was not seen again. The search was eventually suspended in poor conditions.

Volunteers devoted three days to a search for a 53-year-old man who was washed off rocks while spear fishing with his son at Laggers Point, at South West Rocks, about 1pm on February 4.

The crew of Trial Bay 30 and two Rescue Water Craft operators were quickly on the water with other emergency services.

A crew from MR Port Macquarie bolstered the search assets on the second and third days before the operation was suspended late on February 6 with no trace of the man.

In the only boating tragedy of the peak season, Lake Macquarie 20 responded within minutes when a sailor was knocked overboard from his yacht off Wangi Point on Lake Macquarie on February 14.

Members of MR Port Kembla and Shellharbour return from a search operation following the death of three fishermen washed off rocks below Hill 60, among nine lives lost on the coastline over summer.