JUST LET US DO IT
Angry family’s vow to stop more drownings at blackspot
THE frustrated family of a Gold Coast man who died a hero at a treacherous Tweed beach say they will pay for lifebuoys themselves after yet another tragedy yesterday.
Josh Martin, whose brother Ryan died in 2016 in the dramatic rescue of a seven-year-old girl, is furious authorities are yet to fulfill their promise to install flotation devices on Fingal headland after four deaths in less than three years.
The search will resume this morning for a 25-year-old backpacker who went missing yesterday while swimming at the beach. “We need local and state governments to act,” Mr Martin said. “How many more lives will be lost until they do? We will even put up the funding to pay for the flotation rings.”
Politicians said installation of the devices had been delayed because of a wrangle over insurance.
RYAN Martin’s family was told almost two years ago his drowning at a treacherous Fingal Head beach would result in the installation of flotation devices at the site.
It has yet to happen and after another tragedy at the beach yesterday, they’re so frustrated they’ve offered to pay for the lifebuoys themselves.
“We need local and state governments to act,” said Josh Martin, whose 35-year-old brother Ryan Martin drowned a hero during the dramatic rescue of seven-year-old Rihanna Milabo on Good Friday 2016.
“It is a simple measure already used on many NSW headlands that will save lives. We will even put up the funding to pay for it. How many more lives will be lost until they do?
“The community want action, having taken it into their own hands to place flotation devices on the headland such as a chopped-up bodyboard after Ryan gave his life saving little Rihanna.
“But this has been removed and we now have another tragedy that may have been prevented if there had been a flotation device to throw to the young man.”
Emergency services were forced to call off their search last night for a 25-year-old backpacker who went missing while swimming south of Fingal headland.
The search will resume this morning, with his death the fourth at the unpatrolled beach since October 2015.
Tweed MP Geoff Provest said lifebuoys that were supposed to be installed on the headland by “the peak summer period” had been held up by council processes.
“Obviously we have been hoping to get these lifebuoys out as soon as possible because there have been three incidents in the spot already, but it was held up by processes like public liability insurance and the fact it is a significant Aboriginal site,” he said.
While Mr Provest said lifebuoys would now be installed in four weeks, Fingal locals have expressed dismay at the bureaucratic processes that have delayed their arrival.
Steve Kudzius, who has suffered psychological trauma since playing vital roles in the bids to save both Ryan and New Zealander Aggie Auelua less than six months earlier, said he spent more than a year fighting for government approval to install flotation devices on Fingal Headland.
“I just lost drive in the end because you were hitting your head against the wall,” he said.
“We just wanted three ‘angel rings’ on the headland – one on each end and a central one – but I kept getting handballed around to different people and no one would ever make a decision.
“It was a never-ending circle and I just kept getting the run-around … I had the funding to install and maintain them, just not the permission to put them in. I firmly believe lives could have been saved if there was something that floats on the headland.”
Mr Kudzius, who has lived at Fingal for three decades, said the amount of tourists swimming at Dreamtime Beach had increased markedly in recent years.
“We’ve spent all our lives protecting the beaches here and we’ve never had the amount of people we’ve got coming through here now,” he said.
“Dreamtime is advertised as one of the seven secret beaches on backpacker websites. It’s (promoted) everywhere so we’re getting a huge influx of people but it’s so dangerous.
“We’re trying to work out (how to keep them safe) on our own.
“We’re having another meeting soon to talk about what we can do.”
Mr Provest last year said the installation of flotation devices had been delayed because of a disagreement over which government body would be responsible if someone hurt themselves on them.
Yesterday he said the device would be a life preserver with a rope that was only useful for beach swimmers.
“It can’t help people who jump off the rocks because that water will pound you against the rocks,” he said.
“Lifebuoys won’t resolve reckless behaviour. I can’t stress to people enough to be cautious in that area.”
FINGAL’S fatal charm is thought to have claimed the life of a 25-year-old man who disappeared in the surf there yesterday.
In what appears to have been the fourth drowning at Fingal in three years, friends reported seeing him being swept out in a rip before disappearing – an account that is becoming tragically familiar.
Despite this, pledges to install lifebuoy stations around the headland have failed to result in action. Tweed coast lifesaving and lifeguard services have long struggled for resources in Sydney-centric NSW.
It beggars belief the NSW Government, knowing how dangerous the beaches can be, allows itself to be bogged down in insurance arguments over lifebuoys and continues to short-change on funds that would put volunteer clubs and lifeguard services on a firm basis for saving people’s lives. Meanwhile it throws money at technology to protect sharks that were said to be hanging around the area yesterday.
As the search continued, with hopes of rescue changing to bleak realisation this would probably become a body recovery, the words of a 19-year-old who almost drowned there came back to haunt.
Liam Towner told the Bulletin last month how he was sucked underwater by the current and then, when he did break the surface, was “smacked so much’’ by breaking waves he almost passed out.
Strong and unpredictable currents can make conditions dangerous even on seemingly calm days there. Added to that are the limited lifesaving services available.
Signs at the entry to Dreamtime beach warn of surf danger.
But pledges after the last tragedy for “angel rings’’ to be put around the headland for rescuers to throw to swimmers have yet to be honoured. The Bulletin has learned that locals took it on themselves to leave homemade flotation devices for emergency use after a 2016 drowning.
Budgets and bureaucracy must not get in the way of saving lives. NSW has to lift its act in recognising what must take priority.