Avoid after-hours tragedies and use technology at Austinmer, plead lifesavers

The rescue was a "warning shot" that lives could be lost at the beach unless there are drastic changes, lifesaver Adam Turner said.

Lifesavers are being hailed as heroes for saving the swimmers who got stuck in a rip while swimming at the beach around 7pm on Monday, December 11.

An 18-year-old woman was dragged unconscious back to the sand and was one of five to be rushed to hospital.

It was outside patrol hours and lifesavers just happened to be having a committee meeting in their club when the emergency occurred.

"That was a warning shot last night [Monday] as far as I'm concerned, and whether the sliding doors of luck have run out after that one because we were just here at the time, not only here," Austinmer Surf Life Saving Club's Mr Turner said.

The club's director of education and National Rescue Award recipient said most people rescued at the beach were not from the Illawarra and they have a lack of beach safety skills.

"We're the easiest beaches to get to from south-west Sydney," he said.

The solution, he said, is the installation of an emergency response beacon, similar to what is already installed at Puckeys, Sharkys, East Corrimal and Coniston beaches.

If an emergency occurs simply pushing the button activates a triple-0 call.

"I've lost count of how many out-of-hours rescues happen at this beach, but it happens weekly," Mr Turner said.

Beach safety education is another vital component in keeping people safe and he called on Surf Life Saving NSW to provide this to people in south-west Sydney.

"Surf Life Saving NSW needs to now go out and engage the communities in south-west Sydney, the community leaders," he said.

Mr Turner said foreign students in that area should also be targeted with beach safety campaigns, including how to survive a rip.

"Perhaps engaging the University of Western Sydney at the time when they're doing their O-Week activities," he said. "Having people like us turn up and give them education on what is it rip and and flagged areas and where not to swim."

In his time patrolling at Austinmer, Mr Turner has seen multiple people, on different days drape their clothing and beach towel to cover the 'Danger swimming not advised' sign.

"I just said 'you need to go up to the flags'. Literally the first thing that came out of their mouth was 'what are the flags? What do they mean?'," he said.

Instructional videos on inbound international flights would also help saves lives, Mr Turner said.

"If only one per cent of inbound passengers paid attention to that, using the McDonald's factor, that's tens of thousands of interventions before they even hit Australia," he said.

The McDonald's factor, he said, is staff asking "would you like to upsize?" or "would you like fries with that?".

"If only one per cent of people respond to that, they make a million bucks," Mr Turner said.

With more hot weather predicted this week and across summer, people are urged to only swim at patrolled beaches.

Patrol hours vary at beaches, for information on hours, rip currents and beach safety visit Beachsafe at beachsafe.org.au.