Hopes fade as searches called off for missing swimmers
Authorities have suspended or scaled back the search for three people missing in separate incidents along the country’s coastline.
Hopes continue to fade for the 14-year-old boy who was dragged into the water when the boat he was on capsized on New Year’s Eve.
The teenager and two other men were aboard the ship when it capsized in difficult conditions around 11.35am around Barrenjoey Point on Sydney’s northern beaches.
One man was pulled from the water by surf lifeguards and treated by paramedics, but died at the scene and the second man was flown to safety by helicopter.
A massive search for the teenager was called off on Saturday morning.
The search for a 25-year-old man who was caught in the rip current just after 6 a.m. on New Year’s Day was also called off.
He and two friends took to the water at Sydney’s popular Coogee Beach before they were seen battling a rough wave.
Television news shows a fully clothed police officer entering the water to save the man, but he slips away.
Two more people were rescued with the intervention of off-duty lifeguards.
A snorkeler who disappeared into the ocean off Ledge Point Beach, 100 km north of Perth, on Thursday afternoon is also feared dead.
According to WA Police, the 32-year-old man was part of a group of four divers from Perth who were snorkeling to catch crayfish.
Police divers were involved in the search, but when they could not see the man on Friday evening the search was scaled back.
The search efforts come after five drownings since the beginning of the year.
Two women and two men have died off the NSW coast and an Irish national drowned at a popular Queensland tourist beach.
The tragic beginning of 2026 began when a 25-year-old woman, believed to be a Chinese national, was struck by a crashing wave into the tidal rock pool at Maroubra on Sydney’s eastern beaches.
He was found around 5 a.m. on Thursday and could not be resuscitated.
In the afternoon, a 45-year-old woman was pulled from the water off Dunbogan Beach on the mid-north coast of NSW.
A man in his 50s was also pulled from the water at Lobster Bay Beach in Shoalhaven on the NSW south coast on Friday.
The spearman was treated by NSW Ambulance paramedics but could not be revived and died at the scene.
Further north, in Queensland’s Whitsundays region, a 35-year-old Irish man was found dead in the water at Whitehaven Beach on New Year’s Eve.
Surf lifesavers say they have carried out hundreds of rescues on the nation’s beaches since Christmas Day.
The risk of drowning during the New Year period is three times higher than at other times of the year.
