Grey nomads who choose to swim or paddle in unfamiliar waterways are being blamed – at least in part – for a huge jump in drownings in Australia.
A new Royal Life Saving report reveals that the 55-plus age bracket is now the single biggest for drownings. Nationally, 55-plus drownings accounted for 34% of all drowning deaths. The figure show that in the year ending on June 30, 284 people fell victim to water across the country, 75 of them in Queensland.
Royal Life Saving Society Queensland executive director Michael Darben told the Daily Telegraph that overly-adventurous grey nomads were tackling water-based activities that they may no longer be able to perform.
“We’ve got to be able to re-educate people in that age group,” he said. “They may go for a paddle in the kayak or a swim, but they may not have done those things for 20 or 30 years. They’re exceeding their current skills and expecting to do things they were previously able to do.”
The other issue confronting Queensland, Mr Darben said, was that of the state’s growing population and immigration from areas where they may not have had the swimming training.
“We have an environment that attracts people to water,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “When we get to lakes and rivers and dams, there’s a perception that the water is safer, because there’s no waves. A lot of the drownings occur in unsupervised areas.”
The latest figures also show that 82% of drownings were men, 25% occurred in rivers, creeks or streams, 23% at beaches and 19% in ocean and harbour locations. Bathtub drownings for children under five have also sky-rocketed, jumping 75% across the nation on the five-year average. Swimming and recreation accounted for 25% of deaths, followed watercraft-related activity at 20% and falls into water at 13%.
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