Teenager becomes third young man to drown in past week in rivers

Shocked teenagers are posting tributes to a 16-year-old Dubbo boy whose body was found on Monday night in one of the deadliest places for drownings in NSW.

It is the third drowning of a young male swimmer in Australia in the last week. 

A 16 year old boy drowned while swimming in the Macquarie River near Bunglegumbie Road outside Dubbo.  Photo: Tottenham Topics Facebook page

The body of the boy, believed to be a talented local cricketer Sam Fraser, was found in the Macquarie River, Dubbo, about 8.15pm after a search by emergency services assisted by his family and friends. 

The teenager went missing while swimming in the Macquarie River. believed to be near Bunglegumbie Road where a bridge crosses the river, on Monday afternoon.

"Rest easy Sam Fraser ... taken way too young," said one of his friends on Facebook 

Tributes following the death of 16 year-old Sam Fraser who died while swimming in the Macquarie River near Dubbo. Photo: Facebook

Justin Scarr, the chief executive officer of the Royal Life Saving Society Australia (RLSSA), said unfortunately it was that time of year when young men were more at risk of drowning. 

"More than 90 per cent of rivers drownings are male, and men overestimate ability and underestimate the risk of aquatic activity," he said. 

"What seems to be simple bit of fun can be incredibly dangerous," he said.

"The local swimming hole can be safe one day , and very dangerous the next .. because of the currents and debris travelling down the riverway," he said.

The increased amount of water in the rivers this year, because of record rains in winter and spring, had made them more dangerous and more attractive to young people.

A 10-year study by the RLSSA found more people died in rivers than anywhere else: Of the 2892 people who drowned in Australia between 2002 and 2012, about 770 jumped, dived or fell to their deaths in rivers, making it the leading location for unintentional drowning deaths.

And four out of five victims were male, and nearly all drowning victims lived within 100 kilometres of where they died. 

Rivers accounted for 300 more deaths every year on average than the next bigger locations, including swimming pools and beaches, said the author of the report Amy Peden who reviewed reports by coroners.​

The most dangerous 10 rivers in Australia include the Macquarie and the Hawkesbury in NSW, where Bailey Maher, 18, of Camden, drowned in December 2015 when he went for a swim from a houseboat at a Christmas party on the Hawkesbury River. Other dangerous rivers include the Murray, followed by the Brisbane, the Yarra, the Swan, the Murrumbidgee, Sandy Creek in Queensland, the Derwent in Tasmania, Katherine in NT.

Mr Scarr said at this time of year kids were holding end-of-year celebrations and the local swimming hole could look very enticing, as could jumping off a bridge or a cliff into a river or dam.

"It is very tempting on a hot day, " he acknowledged, but it was also very dangerous.

"Never swim alone, enter the water cautiously and only swim in known swimming locations."

A Malaysian man died while cooling off in the Ovens River in Myrtleford Victoria a week ago.  

Police said the river there had an unpredictable current. 

A 21-year-old man also drowned five days ago in a quarry near Ipswich.

Police said the lake was cold, dangerous, on private property and full of hazards, but people regularly swam there anyway.