BEACHGOERS have been sent a timely warning, ahead of what is forecast to be a hot holiday long-weekend, via a chilling review of the mass drowning tragedy at Phillip Island’s Forrest Caves Beach on the ABC’s 7.30 Report on Tuesday night.
And once again, the misleading and confusing signage at the often-treacherous beach was brought sharply into focus.
The report by veteran ABC social affairs reporter, Norman Hermant, drew on the involvement and experience of local surf lifesavers, Jason Close and Darrell Clark, in explaining what happened on the day and also family members of the deceased, Amrita and Ankur Chhabra.
“On that day there were nine of us. We just went to Phillip Island in the morning around 10.30 in the morning. We went to chocolate factory first and then we went to the Vietnam Veterans Museum. While we were in the museum, my nephew said oh, there's a big sign to Forrest Caves beach looks very nice, let's go over there," Mr Chhabra said.
“So, we all went to Forrest Caves beach. Our plan was never to go to Forrest Caves beach, just because he saw the sign outside, we all went there."
That spur of the moment decision, based on the location of tourist attraction signs, would have a devastating outcome.
“All nine of us just sat down on the rocks, and we all had lunch and we were having good time. And me and my wife were just sitting on the rocks, while other family members were just standing in the water, maybe ankle height or knee height. It didn't feel anything dangerous because they're all my kids, my family. If I would have seen any danger, I would have asked them straight away to move out.”
All of a sudden, however, things took a dramatic turn for the worse.
“We started changing the kid's clothes, then suddenly, maybe after 30 seconds or less than that, we saw in a different direction, somebody waving their hand and asking for help. And when I looked over there it was my family.
“We both ran to the water and tried to save them but suddenly it was too strong and we couldn't save them.”
Jason Close of the Woolamai Beach Surf Lifesaving Club was one of the first to answer the call.
“It was a really confronting, shocking scene, the likes of which I've never really seen in all my time in surf lifesaving. When I got to the top of the dunes, I saw four different groups. There were four people on the beach already at that point. CPR had commenced and there was a mix of lifesavers and ambulance paramedics doing CPR.”
Volunteer Lifesaver Darrell Clark rushed to the scene on a jetski and headed directly to the lead paramedic.
“So, I went straight to that person and said where do you want me? He said I want you over in that group there. So, I went straight to that group and I started administering CPR there for the next probably 40 minutes. It was pretty daunting. A few family members were scattered. They were in tears. They were distraught. They had other family members with them and police with them. I think there were some lifesavers with them. So, it was pretty traumatic,” said Darrell in the ABC report.
Mr Chhabra summed it up.
“In two seconds, we lost everybody. So, that's the toughest time of our life.”
The reporter said the family group did notice a sign heading onto the beach, but he said, “the most prominent warning wasn't about dangerous swimming”.
“Before the stairs going up, there was another yellow-coloured sign which said no dogs allowed or something. I just want to ask one thing, what's more important, dogs on the beach or saving somebody's life? So, what sign should be bigger?” Mr Chhabra said.
Rip expert, Professor Rob Bander, was also interviewed for the story but he noted that with 11,000 unpatrolled surf beaches around Australia likely to attract a crowd on a hot day, the associated risks are always going to be there.
But he did say that simply relying on the “swim between the flags” message wasn’t enough when you had so many people going to so many unpatrolled beaches.
“I think we have an issue with signage, safety signage on beaches in general. People just kind of switch off they don't really look at signs,” he said.
“What is it that’s going to make a sign effective? We don't have an answer for that.”
Darrell Clark agrees, saying many people visiting the beaches at Phillip Island, don’t see the existing signs.
“Every day we're on patrol, we would talk to people on unpatrolled beaches about this being a dangerous area…"
And do they have an idea of how dangerous this is here?
"More often than not they aren’t aware of the dangers that exist."
In a manganous gesture at the end of the program, Amrita and Ankur Chhabra said they hoped warnings at the state’s otherwise beautiful beaches might be made more clear and that others might learn from their mistake.
“To other people, maybe we made a mistake. Please don't make a mistake. Things can change in seconds. Doesn't need minutes. It needs only seconds. Things can change. And somebody can lose their life.”
Ahead of what looks to be one of the biggest beach weekends of the year, the message is clear, swim only at patrolled beaches and stay between the flags.
If you do go to unpatrolled beaches, acquaint yourself with the risks and know your limits. As the tragedy of Forrest Caves on Wednesday, January 24 proved, you only need to be ankle deep or knee deep in a rip to come to grief.
You can see the ABC 7.30 Report via this link at 21:30: Tuesday 5/3/2024 : ABC iview
No sign of a response
In 2019, the Aquatic Risk & Research Department of Life Saving Victoria prepared a ‘Bass Coast Shire Coastal Risk Assessment’ report as part of the Surf Life Saving Australia Beach Drowning Black Spot Reduction Program funded by the Australian Government.
Despite failing to undertake an assessment of Forrest Caves, a known drowning black spot because it was allegedly “not accessible at the time of site observations”, the report identified upgrading signage with a “clear and concise communication objective” consistently across the region as a key objective, and for land managers within BCS to “commit to a systematic monitoring and review process”.
“Ongoing reporting will communicate the activities and outcomes, provide information to inform decision-making, improve risk management activities and facilitate interaction with stakeholders”.
The full report was only recently released in its entirety, almost five years on, and there have been no details from the stakeholders, including Bass Coast Shire, Phillip Island Nature Parks, Parks Victoria, of action taken or “systematic reviews” conducted.
In October 2013, Bernadette Matthews, Robert Andronaco, Austin Adams conducted research on the effectiveness of beach warning signs for Life Saving Victoria.
While they said that “less than half of beachgoers (45%) observed any signage”, a significant number do see the warnings.
They said that when signage was noticed, beachgoers were more likely to notice hazard symbols (96.4%) rather than regulation or other information.
But, according to Matthews, Andronaco and Adams, a relatively large number of the interviewees mentioned relevant aquatic hazards even when signage was absent.
“This indirectly suggests that public awareness and related campaigns in the past (by government and other agencies) have been relatively effective.”
So, clear and concise signs, highlighting the dangers posed by rips are effective as part of a related public awareness campaign.
Last week, NSW Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib responded to the release of Royal Life Saving’s annual National Summer Drowning Toll report, revealing a 10 per cent increase in the number of summer drownings, to 99, until February 29 this year.
The rise in summer drowning deaths in Victoria was substantially higher than the national average, driven up by six drowning deaths at Bass Coast beaches in 13 days during January 2024, up 23% from 22 last year to 27 deaths this year.
Where is Victoria’s response?
By comparison to the 1266 national road toll in 2023, the summer drowning deaths across Australia of 99 might not seem as significant but there is something around the circumstances of these fatalities that has a major impact on first responders and the general community, well beyond the bare statistics.
