River rescue "hubs" with life vests, voice instructions and an emergency mobile phone connection to first responders have been proposed to the ACT government for trial in Canberra's remote waterways and swimming areas.
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Seed funding has been sought for trialling the technology-based safety solution, earmarked for Canberra's popular but remote swimming areas such as the lower Cotter and Casuarina Sands, similar to river rescue cabinets installed along the Avon River in places such as Bath, in the United Kingdom.
The Murrumbidgee River was rated one of the most-deadly inland waterways in the country for drowning incidents late last year, prompting the Wagga Wagga City Council to approve a trial of rescue cabinets at its most-popular river swimming area.
Where the ACT's rescue hubs would differ is the need for a service provider to provide the emergency phone tower and infrastructure.
Canberra swimming areas which most need the upgraded rescue service such as Casuarina Sands, have no electricity and poor or non-existent mobile phone service so a partnership with a service provider would be needed to make it happen.
Cherry Bailey, the general manager of Royal Life Saving ACT, described it as a "modern day solution to an old-school problem".
"There's a range of modules and attachments to these rescue stations," she said.
"We'd see the phone tower as a critical part of the infrastructure and then look at a range of attachments, such as CCTV, and physically linking the rescue equipment to the tower."
The not-for-profit organisation is eager to see a trial of two rescue hubs which would cost around $250,000, provided a telecommunications company could assist with cost of the phone infrastructure. Royal Life Saving ACT has also pledged funding to support the trial.
"There are a number of ways of making it work and obviously that's something we are open to discussing with the ACT government," she said.
Ms Bailey said that there had been a number of times over the years in which lifesavers had patrolled Casuarina Sands "and every time this [river safety] issue is raised we have people ringing us up and offering to help".
"Royal Life Saving has had a volunteer patrols there [at the river] on and off for some years over the summer periods," she said.
"But the problem is sustaining that presence from a financing and human resource perspective. It's a tricky thing to sustain."
Keeping rescue equipment permanently in the area is also problematic because of vandalism.
Australia's inland waterways, such as lakes, rivers, stream and dams, account for around 21 per cent of drowning deaths every year.
Adding to the toll this summer, a 48-year-old father and his 11-year-old daughter both drowned on December 19 at the Tharwa Sandwash, on the Murrumbidgee River. The sandwash is on a stretch of the Murrumbidgee River which, until now, has not been considered as dangerous to swimmers as Casuarina Sands.
Police said that the young girl had experienced difficulties in reaching shore and when her father went to her aid, he too, got into difficulty.
Members of the public came to the father's assistance and administered CPR for a lengthy period of time until paramedics arrived but he was unable to be revived. The girl's body was later located further downstream.
This tragedy follows the drowning death in August this year of a kayaker at Point Hut.
However, for swimmers, Casuarina Sands is historically seen as the most dangerous swimming zone in the ACT.
In January last year, a 35-year-old man who was the groundskeeper at Canberra Grammar School drowned while swimming in the river at Casuarina Sands. He was fit, and had been swimming in the river almost all his life. Three years earlier, a 27-year-old man also drowned at the same location.
In 1986, a police officer nearly drowned trying to rescue a 13-year-old boy who was trapped under a concrete weir which had been built at Casuarina Sands in the 1960s to create a large, artificial swimming area.
The boy was unable to be saved despite the courageous efforts of many people. The safety of the weir became the subject of public controversy and it was eventually blown apart.
Bouyancy vests and warning signs of the river's condition are currently in place at Casuarina Sands but the ever-shifting nature of the currents, the unpredictable speed of the river flow and the varying height of the rocks and sand beneath the water make for a risky and uncertain swimming environment.
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