WA’s record summer drowning death toll continues to rise after a 56-year-old woman died in waters off Hellfire Bay on Saturday – the seventh casualty since Christmas.
WA’s record summer drowning death toll continues to rise after a 56-year-old woman died in waters off Hellfire Bay on Saturday – the seventh casualty since Christmas.
By Heather McNeill
January 26, 2025 — 10.36am
WA’s record summer drowning death toll continues to rise after a 56-year-old woman died in waters off Hellfire Bay, near Esperance on Saturday – the seventh casualty since Christmas.
Emergency services were called to the bay in Cape Le Grand National Park around 1pm on Saturday after receiving reports of a swimmer in distress.
The beach is considered one of the best in Australia.
The woman was recovered from the water by a group of bystanders who attempted to provide first aid, but the woman sadly could not be revived.
A report will be prepared for the coroner.
WA’s drowning rate is the highest on record, with 12 lives lost since the start of summer.
Australia Day and New Year’s Day are the worst days for drowning across the country, according to an analysis of 12 years of fatal and non-fatal incidents.
Of the more than 4000 drownings found in ambulance, death and hospital data between June 2010 and June 2022, 86 were on Australia Day and 115 on New Year’s Day, meaning one in 20 fatal or near-fatal drownings occurred on those two days.
The research, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, also showed public holidays, school holidays and weekends were associated with higher rates of drowning for every age group except those over 65.
The City of Stirling’s beach services team performed an unprecedented 374 rescues in the month of December alone – more than usually seen in an entire year.
The alarming statistics have come after a horrific month-long period in which seven people drowned in WA waters.
Joseph Bank Secondary College student Tyler Jury died at the non-lifeguard-patrolled recreational area at Lake Leschenaultia in the Perth Hills earlier this month.
Just 30 minutes after emergency services were called to Lake Leschenaultia, paramedics rushed to help a man pulled from the water in the coastal town of Bremer Bay.
Police said the man in his 40s died after entering the water to help two children who were struggling, before finding himself in trouble.
Just days prior, 22-year-old Sio Afamasaga drowned at City Beach, just south of the City of Stirling boundary, on January 10.
On January 4, Olya Tikhanova, 40, was on a holiday with her husband and their teenage daughter when she was swept off the rocks at Salmon Beach while taking a photograph.
On December 28, a husband and wife have died while trying to save their young daughter at a beach near Walpole in Western Australia’s Great Southern.
Heather McNeill is the deputy editor and chief reporter at WAtoday.Connect via Twitter.