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But the Coastal Safety Group, representing lifeguards at 25 coastal councils, has called for more funding to extend professional lifeguard services to some unpatrolled beaches that are both dangerous and popular. If that funding isn’t available, it wants a share of the record $72 million that Surf Life Saving NSW will receive from the NSW government over four years.
Coastal Safety Group argues that more funding could extend lifeguard coverage at many beaches. Credit: Coastal Safety Group
Coastal Safety Group secretary Tony Blunden said: “We could do a much better job at data-based decision-making around where we actually apply our efforts to reduce drownings. What we hear quite often is, ‘We’d love to patrol more beaches, but we can’t afford it.’ But you could use [some of the funds provided to Surf] to just patrol more beaches.”
Coastal councils spent $32 million for nearly 17,000 patrol days, which resulted in about 70 per cent of NSW rescues. The CSG’s analysis found an additional $702,081, for example, could provide a full year of service at a new location.
NSW Minister for Emergency Services Jihad Dib says the number of coastal drownings in NSW is “deeply concerning”. It prompted a Coastal Water Safety Roundtable to look at strategies to make beaches safer.
“That includes opportunities to encourage greater collaboration across a range of initiatives to prevent drownings, including efforts by paid and volunteer lifeguards, which I see as complementary.”
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“While paid lifeguards are often allocated to the busiest beaches (in many cases complementing volunteer patrols), our record investment [in Surf Life Saving] is also targeting unpatrolled higher-risk locations through the use of emergency response beacons, jet skis and drone capabilities.”
Surf Life Saving NSW chief executive officer Steve Pearce said a large proportion of coastal drownings represented in drowning statistics included those in unpatrolled locations near rock platforms and headlands and remote beaches rarely visited by the public.
Pearce said of the 61 coastal drownings in 2023-24, 52 per cent occurred at beaches. The balance involved rock fishing, boating, diving, falls and incidents in Sydney Harbour waterways where it would not be feasible to provide active life guarding and life saving.
Pearce said he didn’t want to be adversarial. It was for the benefit of the community that these paid lifeguards and volunteers worked together.
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While lifeguards were mostly employed over summer, Surf Life Saving’s service was “24/7 every day of the year. We have call-out teams and surveillance throughout the years.”
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