- The number of drownings in summer rises above 40
- A man got into trouble in a river on the far south coast of NSW
- READ MORE: Girls pulled from water at Perth swimming spot
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A man has tragically drowned in a river on NSW's far south coast, as the national summer toll rises to more than 40 lives lost in just five weeks.
Emergency services were called to the Yowaka River at Nethercote, near Eden, at around 3pm on Thursday.
The 53-year-old man had reportedly had problems in rough water.
Police and ambulance personnel arrived on the scene, but the swimmer could not be resuscitated.
Summer drownings are higher so far than the same time last year as Australians flock to waterways across the country.
A man, 53, drowned in the Yowaka River at Nethercote near Eden on the far south coast of NSW
According to Royal Life Saving Australia, there have been 40 drownings across Australia since the start of December, compared to 34 this time last year.
Of the 90 people who drowned during the summer of 2022-2023, a quarter occurred between Christmas and New Year
This week a 50-year-old woman died after being caught in a rip with a child on the NSW north coast.
The woman was swimming with the young relative when they were swept into the sea at Park Beach in Coffs Harbor on Tuesday evening.
The child was brought safely to shore.
Surf Life Saving NSW chief executive Steven Pearce said the ripple effect on both the woman's family and first responders will be untold for years to come.
It follows a particularly deadly Christmas and New Year period, which usually sees more drownings than at any other time.
The man could not be resuscitated despite frantic efforts by paramedics (stock image)
A four-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy died after being found unconscious in Perth's Swan River, near where revelers had gathered for New Year's celebrations.
The children, from separate families, were seen in the water at a popular family picnic spot and were unresponsive as the public pulled them from the river.
Two days after Christmas, a two-year-old girl died after being pulled unconscious from a backyard pool in northern NSW.
Irish tourist John Holland, 63, was on the 'holiday of a lifetime' visiting his daughter when he drowned on Victoria's Hutt Gully Beach, south of Anglesea on the Great Ocean Road.