Man, 35, drowns at popular Queensland tourist beach
A 35-year-old man has died at a popular tourist beach in central Queensland, bringing the number of drownings in Australia this summer to 23.
Emergency services were called to Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island after the Irish national was found unresponsive in the water at around 11am on Wednesday.
Beachgoers said they were kept away from the area while the man’s body was recovered, and that police confirmed the man died at the scene and were preparing a report for the coroner.
The exact circumstances of the man’s death were unknown.
Famous for its white sands, Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsunday Islands National Park is only accessible by boat and is estimated to attract between 7,000 and 8,000 visitors a year.
Royal Life Saving Australia has recorded 22 drowning deaths so far in the summer of 2025-26; This does not include the 35-year-old found on Wednesday.
Five people drowned in Queensland, placing it tied for second place with NSW.
The highest number of deaths occurred in Western Australia, where six drownings were recorded.
At the same time, 42 people drowned in the summer of 2024-25 (20 more than the current death toll), and 36 people drowned between the beginning of summer and January 1 in the last five years.
Three people were feared dead in NSW on Thursday after heavy waves closed almost 70 beaches, most of them around Sydney.
In the early hours of Thursday, a woman was pulled from the water at Dunbogan Beach near Port Macquarie on the central coast of NSW and was unable to be resuscitated by paramedics.
A second woman, 25, died after she was struck by a wave and swept out to sea at Sydney’s Maroubra Beach at around 4am on New Year’s Day. He was believed to be a Chinese citizen, but has not yet been officially identified.
In a separate incident, also south-west of Sydney, three people were caught in large waves off Coogee Beach.
Two people were rescued by an off-duty lifeguard, but a man in his 20s could not be let in.
Emergency services continued their search efforts on Thursday evening, but rescue and recovery efforts were hampered by rough sea conditions.
In Queensland, another man died earlier in the week as heavy rains reached more than 1,100 millimeters in some of the heaviest rainfall just north of Townsville between 28 and 31 December.
The man, in his 70s, was driving near Normanton when his vehicle was swept away by floodwaters.
It was discovered on Tuesday and police did not consider his death suspicious.
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