Bush Nippers: Evaluating the effectiveness of the Nipper education program in regional inland Victoria, Australia

Abstract

Inland waterways have been identified internationally as prime locations for drowning. 1 Within Australia, inland waterways are the most common locations for fatal drowning 2 : 29% (n = 80) of all drowning deaths in 2019 were reported to have occurred in rivers, creeks and streams, followed by 26% in beaches and 11% in swimming pools. 3 Possible explanations for this include the unique dangers of these

Awareness without learning: A preliminary study exploring the effects of beachgoer's experiences on risk taking behaviours

“…Further, an untold number of drowning deaths are prevented each year at unpatrolled beaches by surfers (Attard and Shaw, 2015;Berg et al, 2021) and other bystanders (Brander et al, 2019;Lawes et al, 2020). While risk prevention practices on Australian beaches focus on patrolled locations through supervising flagged locations and the 'Nippers' program that provides coastal water safety skills to children aged 5-14 years (Calverley et al, 2021), awareness raising via warning signs remains the most common form of community engagement at unpatrolled beaches (Uebelhoer et al, 2022). This is despite the known limitations that beach warning signs have on behaviour change (Brannstrom et al, 2015;Houser et al, 2017;Matthews et al, 2014;Sot es et al, 2020).…”