Australia’s beaches still pose deadly risks to foreign-born people, with a survey finding many struggle to understand warning signs.
A Monash University study found that beach-related terminology and even the color of warning signs were regularly misinterpreted by international visitors.
The grim research comes as the summer drowning season approaches, with some cultural representative bodies questioning whether enough has been done to teach beach safety.
About a third of Australia’s 357 drowning deaths from 2024 to 2025 were people born overseas.
Masaki Shibata, a drowning prevention researcher at Monash University who is also a surf lifesaver, said instructions such as ‘swimming between the flags’ were subject to misinterpretation.
Other terms such as “shore dump”, “rip current” and “submerged object” do not always translate well either.
“To make the terms more universal, we need to first revise the English… shore is location, dump is action, and many people don’t know what is dumping you or what is being dumped,” he told AAP.
“Instead, can we just simply say ‘crashing waves’, and instead of ‘swim between the flags’ we can just say ‘stay between the flags’.
Shibata’s previous work has shown that ‘swimming between the flags’ can be misinterpreted as an area for swimmers, prompting some people to venture beyond the sea.
“Some people felt they should stay out of the flags because they can’t swim,” he said.
A dangerous current warning would deter most swimmers unless they saw others jumping in. Source: Delivered
High-risk signs such as ‘beach closed’ or ‘no swimming’ should be displayed in red rather than yellow, the study found, to ensure the seriousness of the message is conveyed.
Understanding signage was crucial, Shibata said, because many were tempted to simply follow what others were doing.
Ninety percent said they wouldn’t go in the water if they saw a sign saying “dangerous current,” but half of them said they would go in if they saw others swimming, he said.
Amar Singh, of the Sikh organization Turbans 4 Australia, has advocated education campaigns and other initiatives to improve water safety among migrant communities.
But he said peak bodies had made minimal progress in recent times.
“Unfortunately, people don’t seem to hear or learn about water safety until it’s too late,” he told AAP.
“We do a lot of triage afterwards, rather than going to the community beforehand and saying, ‘Hey, this is actually something that could really take your loved ones away.’”
Singh suggested that a water safety briefing should be part of the visa application process.
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