Review of Victoria's water safety arrangements

All hazards

Risks spanning across multiple hazard types and across the emergency management system.

Biosecurity

Exotic animal and plant disease outbreaks and pest incursions can have significant economic, community and environmental impacts.

Bushfire and other fires

Bushfire and other fires have potential consequences including loss of life and property, and damage to infrastructure and environment.

Climate change

Risks include more days of extreme heat, harsher fire weather, less rainfall and rising sea levels.

Communications disruption

Communications services are crucial in keeping communities safe, connected and informed before, during and after emergencies.

Cyber security and ICT systems failure

Risks relating to the confidentiality, availability, integrity of information and data and disruption of services.

Energy supply disruption

Reliable energy supplies are critical to many social and economic activities.

Flood

Major flood events have occurred in Victoria every 10 to 20 years, with much of the increasing risk created by human settlement.

Hazardous material incident

Potential risks relate to many places where Victoria’s hazardous materials are manufactured, stored, transported, used and disposed.

Heatwave

Heatwaves are considered to be the ‘silent killer’ of extreme weather events and are the leading cause of weather-related deaths in Australia.

Public health emergency

Risks may relate to the delivery of public health services, with impacts on community health and wellbeing and potential for loss of life.

Supply chain disruption

Geopolitical, environmental, economic, societal and infrastructure-related shocks can expose supply chains to wide ranging consequences.

Terrorism and extremism

Attacks carried out by individuals or non-state groups with ideological, political or religious goals can result in loss of life, severe injury and/or material damage.

Water supply disruption

Risks include collection, storage, treatment, delivery, availability and allocation of water for consumption and environmental, recreation and cultural uses.

Workforce and resourcing

Risks may relate to human resource supply and skills to support emergency management operations.

Assessing Victoria’s current water safety arrangements

What we examined

We assessed whether Victoria’s current water safety arrangements are helping to lower the drowning toll and deliver the Victorian Water Safety Strategy 2021–25 (External link) outcomes.

We focused on 4 key elements of water safety:

governance and coordination
risk
prevention
response.

Why this is important

In 2022-23, 59 people lost their lives – Victoria’s second highest drowning toll in 20 years.

A further 52 people drowned in 2023-24.

Drownings and non-fatal drownings are tragic and common events, yet many drowning risks are avoidable.

These risks will continue to grow with population changes and the way people interact with the environment.

What we found

Many organisations across Victoria recognise the importance of water safety. They dedicate considerable resources to understanding drowning risks, implementing prevention measures, and ensuring patrolling and rescue arrangements are in place.

Government, emergency services, water safety organisations, community groups and businesses all contribute in diverse and effective ways to improving water safety.

Like many areas of emergency management, volunteers contribute significantly to water safety.

Overall, Victoria’s approach to drowning prevention is proactive and evidence-based.

However, there are opportunities to improve the coordination of initiatives and the overall oversight of our approach to water safety.

What we recommended

We made 5 recommendations to:

strengthen Victoria’s existing water safety arrangements
provide greater visibility of the key risks facing water safety in Victoria
ensure better coordination of the approaches, strategies and activities that aim to address risks.

Together these build on the state’s water safety expertise and the programs already in place.