Multicultural communities needed for survey aimed at reducing beach drownings

Mark Woods, a University of NSW student and member of the UNSW Beach Safety Research Group, said beach drowning among people from multicultural communities continued to be a major concern in Australia, with people born overseas representing about a quarter of all drowning deaths, most of which occurred at the beach.

The study he is leading, 'Understanding the Beach Safety Knowledge of Multicultural Communities', is focussing on Subcontinental Asian communities in Australia, and the researchers are seeking multicultural community members to participate in a survey to help address the potentially higher risk of beach drowning and injury among those groups.

The study is something close to the heart of Mr Woods, who grew up at Cronulla beach and goes there most weekends in the summer.

"Over the [last] summer we had a lot of drowning incidents [in the area] and some have involved people in these Subcontinental Asian communities," he told the Leader.

"At Port Kembla, two fishermen drowned. They were living in Australia, from Bangladesh originally, and they were swept off the rocks."

Both individuals and organisations are sought to help get the word out there to potential survey participants.

Gymea Community Aid is already helping with the study.

"Any other organisation that works with the people the survey is targeting would be a great help to us," Mr Woods said.

Over in the bay area, Andrew Tsounis, Bayside councillor and president of Ramsgate Life Saving Club, said in his experience there was "most definitely" a higher risk of beach drowning and injury for multicultural community members.

"Especially in Botany Bay, there is a lot of 'unknown' under those currents," he said.

"There are genuine issues with people who are not familiar with our beaches, especially young men and women who want to use the beach but their knowledge is very limited, including one-off swimmers who don't have the strength to deal with some of our currents and rips."

According to the UNSW Beach Safety Research Group, few studies had attempted to quantify how multicultural communities interacted with the beach, what their swimming ability was like and what they understand about common beach safety practices and hazards.

They said the information collected in the study would be extremely important for the development of beach safety education which prioritised these communities.

Anyone in Australia who is 18 years of age or older and identifies as Indian, Nepalese, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Pakistani, Afghani, Bhutanese or Maldivian is invited to fill out the short online survey at bit.ly/3sKcXQc.

For more information about the study, contact the Beach Safety Research Group via their website at beachsafetyresearch.com/contact-us, or send an email to info@beachsafetyresearch.com.