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A WOMAN is “very lucky” to be alive after getting caught in enormous waves at Sydney’s Bronte Beach. The terrifying ordeal was captured by photographers.

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THE terrifying moment a drowning woman was saved by off-duty lifeguards at Sydney’s Bronte Beach was captured by nearby photographers.

Dramatic images capture the rescue from beginning to end, from the moment the female swimmer begins to get crushed by the dangerous waves and soon realises she is in serious trouble.

Thankfully, surf lifesavers Andrew Reid and Troy Stewart had arrived to begin their shift at 7am on Thursday and spotted the struggling swimmer in the surf.

The woman, a Sydneysider her rescuers identified only as ‘Susy’, was throwing up her hands in the air in an attempt to alert onlookers for help.

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A woman screams for help as she is caught in a rip at Bronte Beach in Sydney, Australia. Picture: Jenny Evans/GettySource:Getty Images

“I had just walked in at 6.55am and a fellow lifeguard turned up because we start at 7am,” Mr Reid told the Daily Mail Australia.

“We were actually just looking out and checking the conditions to see how we would set up the beach and a massive set rolled in and I actually joked I wouldn’t want to be out in that today.”

In the photos, Mr Stewart can be seen thrashing through the water to reach the woman, who was screaming for help in between waves. It is thought she was taking an early morning swim and got swept out too far from the shore.

Two people are assisted out of the water after being caught in the dangerous swell at Bronte. Picture: Jenny Evans/GettySource:Getty Images

Surf lifesaver Andrew Reid helped save the swimmer. Picture: Jenny Evans/GettySource:Getty Images

The heart-stopping images show Mr Stewart reach the flailing woman as she begins to sink below the surface of the water.

“I’ve seen a lot of people drown and I can say I think she was going under for the last time,” his colleague told the publication.

“But then Troy got to her and pulled her up, it was amazing to see.”

Mr Reid later explained that his fellow lifeguard used the strong rip to get to the woman as quickly as possible, before assisting her back to the safety of the shore on the front of his paddle board.

The woman was brought to shore on a paddle board. Picture: Jenny Evans/GettySource:Getty Images

Surf lifesavers brought the woman back to the safety of dry land. Picture: Jenny Evans/GettySource:Getty Images

At the same moment, another rescue was going on nearby; a male swimmer, who had bravely tried to reach the drowning woman, soon needed rescuing himself.

Bondi Rescue lifeguard Anthony Carroll pulled the man from the water before turning back for the female swimmer to see if he could help his colleagues.

Another guard, Wally Eggleton, was also on hand to assist in the woman’s rescue.

Witnesses also helped to pull her out of the water after she was finally ashore.

The unidentified woman was pulled to shore by lifeguards. Picture: Jenny Evans/GettySource:Getty Images

Mr Reid added that the woman is a “very lucky lady” and was extremely grateful to the lifeguards for saving her life.

The woman was reportedly heard saying “thank you so much” as she was carried up the beach for further medical attention.

“She had two of the country’s best surf swimmers at the beach this morning, Troy Stewart and Wally Eggleton,” he added.

Suzy was taken to hospital due to possible salt water remaining in her lungs, as reported by The Australian. Known as “secondary drowning”, it can cause sufferers to drown in their sleep if not properly cleared.

Guards said the woman was extremely lucky. Picture: Jenny Evans/GettySource:Getty Images

A number of factors contributed to the woman’s successful rescue, according to lifesavers. Picture: Jenny Evans/GettySource:Getty Images

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a surf warning as enormous waves continue to hit the NSW coast. The hazardous conditions are expected to render many coastal activities such as rock fishing, boating, and swimming too dangerous.

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AUSTRALIANS shivered their way through Wednesday morning with some parts of Melbourne registering their coldest start to the day in decades.

Severe frost struck swathes of NSW, Victoria and Tasmania today. Tullamarine Airport sunk to -2C this morning as did western Sydney as people set off on their morning commutes.

But it’s not the cold that will be top of mind for the coming days, it will be the wet, with another “rain event” heading towards the southern and eastern states.

About 25mm of rain could fall in Adelaide and more than 15mm in Perth and Melbourne over the coming days. Thunderstorms are a possibility.

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“There was widespread severe frost to start the day for southeastern Australia with some suburbs of Melbourne having their coldest night in 30 years (and) pretty much all inland areas of Victoria dropped below freezing,” Sky News Weathermeteorologist Tom Saunders said.

Coldstream lived up to its name, dropping to -4.3C at 7am, Kyabram was a freezing -3.8C and Yarrawonga bottomed out at -5.2C. The CBD didn’t quite hit zero but it felt like -2.8C at one point. The temperature at Olympic Park of 0.8C was the coldest for this point in winter for more than 60 years.

Victoria’s ski resorts almost got as low as -10C with the operators of Mount Baw Baw telling news.com.au conditions are so good the season is being extended until October 7.

“This is the first time in many years we are extending the season past the traditional end of September date, but the combination of a great base that was created by our snow factory and constant snowfall has allowed us to make the call,” general manger John Fascio said.

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In western Sydney, Richmond reached -1.8C overnight and Sydney CBD felt like -0.7C at 6.30am, even though the actual temperature was higher at 5C.

Cessnock, in the Hunter, hit -2C and Goulburn -7.1C at 6.30am. Thredbo’s -13.2C was the coldest it’s been for 24 years but Perisher took out the bone-chilling honours, slipping to -14C overnight.

The reason why it’s so chilly is an area of high pressure which is leading to clear skies. However that also means sunny and generally warm days.

Indeed, it’s positively springlike in many places. Broken Hill is forecast to get to 25C today, 7C above average and some parts of South Australia are 10C above the norm with Port Augusta on 29C.

Forecasters have said the rain is coming though. It’s already started in the west.

“Margaret River has picked up 40mm of rain,” Mr Saunders said. Perth has now received over 450mm of rain this season, the wettest in 15 years for the city.

“What a winter for Western Australia which is making up in some ways for the drought in eastern Australia.”

He predicted showers, squally storms and strong winds on the west coast and further heavy falls in inland southern parts today.

Perth will reach 17C on a rainy Wednesday with up to 15mm of moisture and a possible thunderstorm. Conditions will gradually improve towards the weekend with some rain and highs of 21C.

A ‘rain event’ is approaching eastern and southern states. Picture: Sky News WeatherSource:Supplied

A series of cold fronts is heading east towards South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and parts of NSW. It will bring rain from Thursday onwards.

“The band of showers will spread through on Friday. The system is fast-moving and as a result most of NSW will only see a few hours of rain but the rain will have a longer duration across Victoria and South Australia with over 10mm likely for most coastal districts,” Mr Saunders said.

Adelaide will see patchy showers with highs of 16C dropping to a chilly 12C on the weekend.

Melbourne could see showers from Thursday to Saturday bringing up to 16mm of rain and highs of 15-17C and a CBD low of 5C on Thursday.

Some rain will head into Tasmania towards the end of the week. In Hobart, the cloud cover will see highs of 16C but that will drop to 12C on the weekend. There will be a low of just 2C on Thursday morning.

Canberra could see up to 15mm of rain on Friday alone.

Sydneysiders will see the sun for a few days to come with temperatures in the late teens to early twenties, but there will be chilly mornings with the mercury slipping to 6C in the CBD on Thursday morning and -2C in the west.

But early next week up to 20mm of rain could fall.

In southern NSW the falls will come earlier with up to 15mm in Wagga and Albury on Friday.

Up in Brisbane, relax, no rain for you — 25C and sunny climbing to 28C on the weekend.

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Whether you’re a university student about to attend their first party, or a grownup with friends who sometimes party a little too hard, it’s good to know what to do when things get out of hand. Here are some of the top tips and skills that can help you help others.

Plan ahead for getting home and getting help

This is basic party safety: Know how you’re getting home, and who should be with you. Ideally you’ll come to the party with a buddy, and plan on going home together. This helps you find your way home, but also the two (or three, or four) of you can check on each other and keep each other safe.

If you’re at university, many schools have a phone number to call if you’re stranded on or near campus, or a “drunk bus” that can take you back home. Find out your options ahead of time, and make sure you have a safe way to get yourself and your possibly incapacitated buddy back to your respective beds.

You’ve also probably received some kind of pamphlet from the school about safety, with emergency numbers, resources and tips of various kinds. Take a picture of that pamphlet, and program the numbers into your phone, so you have that information when you need it. Take a photo of your health insurance card too, in case you end up at the hospital, and ask your friends to do the same.

Know the difference between ‘sleep it off’ drunk and ‘call 000′ drunk

It isn’t normal for somebody to drink a lot and then completely pass out. Now, it might happen fairly often, especially at the beginning of the semester on university campuses, but that doesn’t mean it’s a thing to shrug off. If you don’t know whether your friend is OK, call for help. On campus, there may be a rescue squad or campus security number to call; otherwise, you know how to dial 000.

Get help if your friend:

• Looks to be asleep, but you can’t wake them up
• Might be choking on their own vomit
• Is breathing very slowly

If you call for help, stay with them until help arrives, and tell the emergency responders whatever you know — how many drinks they had, for example. You won’t usually get in trouble.

If your friend can wake up and is breathing just fine, just help them get home safely. If you’re drunk too, find a sober person who can help. Put your friend into a recovery position on the floor or in bed, and have somebody stay with them.

Watch for injuries, and know first aid

Even if somebody only has a small amount of alcohol or drugs in their system, they can still put their life or health at risk because of the things they do while they’re impaired. Do your best to keep your drunk friends away from cars, water (alcohol is a huge risk factor for drowning) and other dangerous situations.

And keep an eye out for injuries. If somebody is bleeding or badly bruised, or looks as though they may have hit their head, it’s possible that they are more injured than they let on. Again, if you aren’t sure how badly hurt somebody is, call for help anyway.

Take a first aid course if you can. Some critical life-saving skills to know are:

• CPR, for when somebody’s heart isn’t beating or they aren’t breathing (you do CPR while somebody calls 000, and keep it up until the emergency responders arrive)
• How to stop bleeding in an emergency — tourniquets are good again!
• What to do if someone is choking (the Heimlich works, but there’s more you should know)

Know how to use naloxone

It’s important to know that a passed-out person might be overdosing rather than just drunk. Once again, if you don’t know, call 000 anyway.

A person who has overdosed on opioids (whether that’s heroin or somebody’s leftover pain pills) will be completely unresponsive, breathing very slowly (less than 12 breaths per minute), and often have blue hands and lips. Narcan or generic naloxone are easy to use if you have them handy.

If this is a situation you think you might encounter, it can be a good idea to have naloxone on hand or to find out whether there’s a kit available nearby. Jillian Bauer-Reese wrote at Slate that perhaps every student should go to school with naloxone and fentanyl test strips.

It’s up to you whether you think you might need them, but either way it’s always good to know what to do in an emergency and to be as prepared as you can be.

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GOLF-SIZED hail has hit parts of central Queensland, as wet weather continues across much of state, some parts seeing falls of up to 50mm.

Residents in Beecher, near Gladstone, were left ducking for cover when golf-ball sized hail bucketed down on Sunday afternoon.

Ian Treveton said the hail had damaged two of his cars, including his daughter’s vehicle.

“My daughter is devastated,” he said.

A piece of hail that fell in Gladstone on Sunday. Picture: Ian TrevetonSource:Supplied

RAIN CONTINUES

Much of the southeast corner of the state has seen widespread falls of 5-15mm in the past 24 hours.

“We’ve seen underneath some of the storms and heavier showers … totals get up around that 30-40 mm mark, but more widespread, if I was to average out the rainfall around the areas I would say 5-15mm,” Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Michael Paech said.

Over 24 hours to 9am, Brisbane City has had almost 22mm, while the Airport has had about 21mm.

Some areas on the Sunshine Coast have experienced heavy falls, with Tewantin getting 21.6mm since 9am on Sunday, while the Sunshine Coast Airport recorded 13.4mm in the same period.

Overnight, the highest falls recorded were at Meandarra in the Western Downs, with 51.2mm. Foxley Alert in the Gold Coast Hinterland had 47mm, while Mungindi on the Queensland, NSW border had 46mm.

Giselle (9) and Jett (7) Challenger in their backyard at St George BakerySource:Supplied

“The mid-level cloud that’s associated with this rain is likely to move off the coast of Brisbane probably through the mid to late afternoon,” Mr Paech said.

“That does just allow a little bit of time through the late afternoon for another shower to push through in behind the clearance of the cloud — we could even see a storm with that too.”

The rain, however, will be short-lived, with conditions to clear in time for start of the working week.

EARLIER drought-stricken towns such as Surry, near Goondiwindi, have already experienced falls of about 50mm overnight Friday and yesterday morning.

Some dry regions woke up to the rare sight of damp conditions and isolated showers during the day.

The heaviest falls were on the Darling Downs between St George and Goondiwindi, which recorded rainfall of 50mm in the 24 hours to 9am Saturday and drizzling rain during the day.

By 8pm Saturday St George had recorded 30mm of rain since 9am, with nearly 7mm between 7pm and 8pm and more on the way.

Charleville also had up to 15mm over the same 24-hour period and then 23mm during Saturday, while Stanthorpe and Kingaroy recorded about 20mm.

Nathan Thomson 41 Eden 650 acres.Prepared his field field for the rain.Source:Supplied

But a bureau spokesman said the rainy conditions will have disappeared by early this week.

“We do have another trough system expected to move across the south of the state next Friday but there’s a fair amount of uncertainty about how much rainfall is associated with that,” he said. “At this stage it is not looking as rain bearing as what we have now.”

That is bad news for the almost 60 per cent of the state within 27 council areas that are either partially or fully drought declared.

The outlook for parts of central Queensland is also not promising, with the Bureau warning it is more likely to be a drier than average spring, along with large areas of land interstate.

Originally published as Hail size of golfballs smashes cars

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This article was copied and pasted from ABC NEWS and written by Jo Khan for Off Track, the ABC and Jo do not endorse Canberra First Aid we are just citing this article to give information to the community on sea snakes and show that we can help in training Australians in how to treat all snake bites.

Close your eyes and take the plunge. Imagine, diving into the ocean and coming face to face with the beady eyes and flicking tongue of a sea snake.

That’s just another day at work for PhD student Blanche D’Anastasi from James Cook University.

“I must have swum with thousands of snakes by now,” she says.

“They zoom right up to me and I think they’re checking if I’m going to try and eat them.”

Australia’s sea snakes are curious creatures, often wriggling out of their coral hidey-holes to say hello to unusual visitors.

“They will come and have a little look, and then go about their business,” Ms D’Anastasi says.

For a long time, sea snakes have slipped through the cracks of ocean — and reptile — conservation.

Now, scientists like Ms D’Anastasi are trying to understand why the marine reptile is mysteriously disappearing from some of our reefs.

Vanishing act

Hundreds of kilometres from the northern coast of Western Australia, lies an idyllic underwater wilderness.

Expeditions to Ashmore reef in the 60s and 70s revealed the area was home to more sea snakes — in species and in numbers — than anywhere else in the world.

A veritable hotspot of sea snake biodiversity, with over 10 different species all cohabitating on the same remote patch of protected coral reef.

Then, they were gone.

There was a glimmer of hope when two of the “extinct” species showed up on the Western Australian coast.

But no-one knew what caused them to disappear in the first place.

“We still don’t,” says Kate Sanders, an evolutionary biologist at Adelaide University.

“It could be to do with changing predator dynamics or disease,” says Dr Sanders, who has been studying Australia’s sea snakes for the past 10 years.

“We can rule out coral bleaching because we know that nearby bleached reefs maintained sea snake populations.”

Evolutionary marvels

The sudden decline of sea snakes at Ashmore Reef indicates the reptiles are vulnerable.

And scientists are concerned this decline may be happening on other reefs.

“We don’t know enough about existing populations of sea snakes to be able to detect declines in other locations,” Dr Sanders says.

When scientists began studying sea snakes in earnest, they soon realised there was a deep trove of evolutionary and ecological secrets to untangle.

For a start they are incredibly diverse, Dr Sanders says.

“[Some snakes] feed on burrowing eels, on fish eggs. Some species only dive to a few metres, while others dive past 100 metres. And some are [found on] blue water reefs, while others in inshore turbid environments,” she explains.

They also evolved quickly from their land-based cousins.

Roughly 10 million years ago, some of Australia’s most venomous terrestrial snakes started to transition toward a semi-aquatic, and eventually fully-aquatic lifestyle.

The tapered tail of the land-based snakes transitioned to a flattened, paddle-like tail allowing sea snakes to efficiently propel themselves through the water.

And while sea snakes retained the single body-length-long lung of their terrestrial counterparts, they also evolved the ability to supplement their oxygen intake through their skin so they could breathe when underwater.

But there are traits they still have in common with their land relatives.

“They do have big, fixed front fangs, a flip-top head like a python, and they are really venomous,” Ms D’Anastasi says.

So there goes a myth that they have little fangs and can’t open their mouths very wide.

But if you leave the snakes alone, they aren’t aggressive, she says.

Snakes and sensibility

The fast-paced evolution of sea snakes can also tell us a lot about how other reptiles evolved, says Jenna Crowe-Riddell who is a PhD student studying sensory evolution at the University of Adelaide.

“They are a great system for studying a comparative approach of evolution, including their sensory systems,” Ms Crowe-Riddell says.

All lizards and snakes have little bumps in varying sizes and numbers on their scales, called sensilla.

“They are in highest numbers on the head — some snakes can have up to 6,000 of these little organs — and they help them move through the world in a tactile way.

“They’re for sensing their immediate environment,” Ms Crowe-Riddell says.

However, it could be a different story for sea snakes.

“When you’re underwater there is potentially this new sense where anything in the water will generate a ripple or vibrations that can get carried through the medium,” she says.

When Ms D’Anastasi heard about this discovery it “rocked her world” because the sea snakes she encountered appeared to pick up her presence from very far away.

“Turns out you cannot sneak up on a sea snake,” she says.

Local conservation key

Scientists also need to know where sea snakes live, if they are going to try to protect them and prevent further declines.

Ms D’Anastasi has spent a lot of time hanging off the back of boats looking for sea snakes to take a scale sample from for DNA analysis to find out whether different populations of sea snakes are related.

“I looked at the DNA of Shark Bay sea snakes, and found that they don’t move far to breed.

“It means that if you’re doing a good job in your local management area, you’re doing the best job possible to protect those sea snakes,” she said.

Analysing the DNA of many different populations of sea snakes showed that they don’t overlap at all, and have very distinct genetic fingerprints.

“Once they’re gone, they’re gone for a really long time, if not for good,” Ms D’Anastasi says.

“We have to do well at a local scale so we don’t lose them population by population.”

Sea snake champions

A lot of people dislike snakes, and many people aren’t overly fond of the ocean, making sea snakes enemy number one for many — despite the fact they very rarely interact negatively with humans.

Scientists like Ms Crowe-Riddell are trying to give their image a makeover, and help people understand their complexities.

But another reason they have previously slipped through the cracks is that even scientists aren’t sure who should be studying sea snakes.

“Sea snakes often get ignored by herpetologists because they’re in the ocean and too hard to get to,” Ms Crowe-Riddell says.

“Or if you’re a marine biologist, you see them in the ocean but you might think ‘oh that’s a reptile’ and ignore them as well.

“So they kind of sit in this weird space and haven’t been as well studied.”

And, she says, learning about sea snakes has implications for more than herpetologists or marine biologists.

“If you want to know how animals change in response to major shifts in their environment, sea snakes are a really good group to study those big questions,” Ms Crowe-Riddell says.

Luckily for sea snakes, they now have a passionate team of scientists working hard to understand and protect them.

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Official patrols of New South Wales beaches will not start for another month, but swimmers and surfers are already being warned to take care this summer.

Thirty-nine people drowned along the state’s coast last financial year, up seven on the year before but still well below the year before that, when 53 people lost their lives to coastal drowning in NSW.

Even before the iconic red and yellow flags have gone up — the season starts on September 29 — crews have been called out to rescue a paddle boarder from the water at Bennetts Headland, near Forster on the mid-north coast.

Conditions were rough on Sunday afternoon because of a building southerly swell when reports came in that a paddle boarder was in distress off Bennetts Headland.

He was rescued by a crew from the Forster Surf Life Saving Club and checked over by paramedics before being released without injury.

Surf Life Saving New South Wales north coast manager Tony O’Mara said there was a simple message for the public ahead of the warmer months.

“People have just got to swim to their capacity, swim at patrolled beaches, swim with friends and just keep an eye out for each other,” he said.

“You’ve got to know what your capabilities are, that’s the most important thing and to reduce that risk, swim between the flags … but if you’re a surfer, just let people know where you’re going, don’t surf alone, surf with friends, and know your capabilities.”

Mr O’Mara is warning people to be aware conditions can change quickly, and they did not have to be far into the water to be caught in a rip.

Drones an important tool for surf lifesavers

PHOTO: The rescue drone unveiled last summer drops lifesaving ‘floaties’ to swimmers in distress. (ABC North Coast: Elloise Farrow-Smith)

Drones will again be used on the state’s beaches this summer to spot sharks and bait balls, but also to help rescue people in distress.

Last summer a drone was used in a world-first at Lennox Head, when just hours after it was unveiled it was used to drop a flotation device to two teenage boys.

A drone has also been used to assist in retrieving the body of a man who had drowned.

Mr O’Mara said plans for the deployment of drones were still being finalised, but they would be one of the tools available to lifesavers.

PHOTO: This drone is capable of dropping a flotation device to swimmers in distress. (ABC North Coast: Elloise Farrow-Smith)

“The technology is allowing us to buy time so if you can get the drone out there, drop a pod, it provides time for the guys on the boards to get out there or an [inflatable rescue boat] to get out there and rescue,” he said.

“It’s one of the tools, it’s not the be-all and end-all because you’ve got to get that pod dropped at the right spot at the right time and people are fatigued, so that’s a harder one as well.”

He said drones were not only useful for helping people in distress.

“The drone just gets a wider area to view, particularly on our long beaches,” Mr O’Mara said.

“Our patrols can then use the eyes in the sky to see what the conditions are. For sharks or bait balls that are coming through, drones are absolutely fantastic.

“The drone goes over the top, it gives a little more confidence for people on the beach to know that there’s that extra set of eyes looking after them, and that’s been really successful.”

‘The sea is the boss’

Brian Barrow and Errol ‘Jay’ Corr have recently been recognised for rescuing a woman from rough conditions at a Port Macquarie beach.

Both men jumped in to help the woman with barely a second thought, but said their experience in the ocean had given them the confidence to do so.

PHOTO: Jay Corr and Brian Barrow reflecting on the rescue of a woman at Shelly Beach, Port Macquarie, in 2017. (ABC Mid North Coast)

“I’ve spent a lot of time in the water before on a surf ski so I was reasonably confident, but I knew I had to not panic, that was the main thing,” Mr Barrow said.

Both men have been humbled by the Commendation for Brave Conduct they have been awarded.

They said they felt honoured but they were not heroes, but the woman they rescued, Joy Carter, feels differently.

“I was very fortunate they put their own lives at risk to save me, a stranger,” she said.

“Not everyone would do that and I probably owe my life to them … I was in serious trouble, I knew I was.”

Mr Corr hopes the story acts as a warning to others and encourages them to find out as much about beach conditions as possible.

“The whole thing is it’s education on the sea, the sea’s the boss, there’s nothing you can do about it, so that’s basically it,” he said.

Plenty of education available

Surf Life Saving NSW runs a range of education programs.

“For people coming to the coast on holidays we run our beach to bush program, which runs throughout rural NSW, and again it’s about educating those people that are going to the beach what to look out for,” Mr O’Mara said.

“There’s a plethora of material also now on the internet in relation to rips and that’s available on Surf Life Saving NSW and Surf Life Saving Australia websites.

“And get the kids learning to swim because that’s the thing you can do the most, not panicking, knowing how to swim, knowing how to float, that’s what it’s all about.”

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SPRING may be just around the corner but winter still has some life in it yet with record low temperatures this morning and a “substantial rain event” headed for large parts of eastern Australia.

A weather system is expected to travel across Australia from the west over the coming days. When it hits South Australia it will take a north east turn and barrel straight for New South Wales and Queensland. Parts of Victoria and Tasmania could also feel the effects.

Getting on for 50mm of rain could fall in Sydney towards the end of the week and into the weekend according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM); 40mm in Brisbane and as much as 80mm in northern NSW and 65mm into the Gold Coast.

For the entire month of August so far Sydney has only received 1.4mm of rain and Brisbane only a touch more at 3mm. The average rainfall for this time of year in Sydney is around 55mm, so if the upper end of the BOM forecast is realised that could see much of the month’s moisture pour down in just days.

During August, Brisbane sees just shy of 30mm of rain so this weekend’s weather could well exceed that. Only 0.8mm of rain has fallen on the Gold Coast so far in August — well below the 43.4mm average.

On Tuesday, 30,000 Muslims gathered in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba to pray for rain for drought affected areas and to bring relief to farmers.

Sheik Yahya Safi, Imam at the Lakemba Mosque, told the crowd, “we ask everyone to donate generously to help our farmers in their crisis. It is our duty to help Australians, especially the farmers,” reported The Australian.

A ‘substantial rain event’ is heading towards the east coast in time for the weekend. Picture: Sky News Weather.Source:Supplied

FIRST THE COLD, THEN THE RAIN

But before the rain comes there’s a chilly week to battle through. It was a cold start to Monday in Port Macquarie, with the mercury in the northern NSW town sinking to -2.2C just after dawn. That was its coldest August start of the day in 24 years.

Sydney woke up to 8C and 4C in the westerns suburbs and Melbourne Airport dipped to 5.8C but it felt more like freezing.

Showers and cold temperatures will linger in the south east for the next few days. As will the drier conditions from central Victoria northwards.

Some rain will fall across Tasmania and southern Victoria although Melbourneshould remain dry, if chilly. Just 11C is the maximum high for Monday and it’s forecast to get down to 2C overnight. There will be similar temperatures in Hobart, while the Top End will be sunny with highs of 31C.

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Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland

✔@BOM_Qld

A lot of interest in potential rainfall this weekend. The 4-day forecast shows 10-15mm in #SEQ with more in northern NSW. Storms may produce isolated heavier falls in #Queensland, but the results are likely to be patchy. Fingers crossedfor our farmers: http://ow.ly/utc830lufeT 

12:00 PM – Aug 21, 2018

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RAIN EVENT

It will be mostly dry and pleasant in South Australia with highs in the late teens. In Western Australia, Perth will be mostly dry but heavy rain will be seen across the southwest. It’s that system which will head across the Bight and could lead to a “big area of rain” and severe thunderstorms in the eastern states, said Sky News Weather meteorologist Rob Sharpe.

“A front is progressing across southern parts of WA and then as that moves into South Australia, a low pressure system developing will move up and into inland areas. Moving with it is a fair bit of upper cold air that will lead to thunderstorms.”

Mr Sharpe said the rain will likely peter out before it reaches parched areas of western NSW, which will be bad news for drought stricken farmers.

But then, as it reaches the coast, the rain will ramp up once again and probably hang around all weekend.

“As we move into Friday, this system will run into moisture in the east so rain will develop along the coast and Tablelands.”

Inland areas of southern Queensland could have a low pressure system squatting right above them which would bring rain, but also hail, strong winds and severe thunderstorms.

“There will big areas of rain right across eastern and central parts of NSW, southern parts of Queensland. Into Monday, that will still bring rain into Gippsland and eastern Tasmania.”

Over the weekend, that area of rain could stretch all the way from the Victorian border, up the entirety of the NSW coast including Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong, into Queensland and only finally easing north of Brisbane around Rockhampton.

In Sydney, the rain could begin on Friday with 25mm on Saturday and 15mm on Sunday. Brisbane will likely see 35mm over the weekend days. But it’s the NSW north coast that will see the biggest drenching with 40mm falling from Coffs Harbour to Byron Bay on Saturday alone.

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TROY Glover was cruising down a Northern Territory river, laughing with his family and friends about the seven crocodiles circling their two houseboats, when a freak storm hit.

The group of 12 suddenly found themselves getting whipped by 220km/h winds, causing one of the houseboats to capsize and leaving Mr Glover’s wife and a number of their friends trapped inside and underwater.

Without hesitation, Mr Glover dived into the Top End’s Mary River, which has one of the highest crocodile populations in the world, to try and help.

Mr Glover dived into the capsized boat three times, holding his breath for a long as possible before finally his wife came to the surface.

Nearby, Mr Glover’s friends Phillip Abram and Michael Jerram had been fishing in a tinny when the October 2013 storm hit.

They too jumped from the tinny and into the crocodile-infested water.

After a desperate search, the three men realised everyone was safe except for their friend Toni Forder.

That was when Mr Abram spotted her facedown, floating around 100m away from the two boats.

“Phil to me he is the real brave one, he dived straight into the water and swam towards Toni and she had to have been 100 metres away already and the water was heavily infested with very large crocodiles,” Mr Glover told SBS.

“When I saw that Phil and Michael were having trouble getting Toni onto the boat I also dived in and swam over to the little boat to help pull Toni in.”

The three men then drove more than 30km down the river to meet emergency services, performing CPR on the way but Ms Forder didn’t make it.

Today, the three men were among dozens of Aussies honoured for their bravery and going above and beyond to save someone else’s life.

Governor General Sir Peter Cosgrove recognised 62 Australians for a Bravery Decoration, awarding Mr Abram and Mr Jerram with bravery medals and Mr Glover a commendation for brave conduct.

The Australian Bravery Decorations recognise members of the public who selflessly jeopardise their own safety to help others.

The awards define bravery in a crisis as willingly going from a place of safety to danger, or the choice to remain in danger, to provide help.

Phil Abram swam 100m through crocodile-infested waters to try and save a friend.Source:News Corp Australia

CHASED BY A GREAT WHITE SHARK

Teenagers Jae Waters and Thomas Harper were surfing at Lighthouse Beach in Ballina when they saw one of their mates Cooper Allen get attacked by a shark.

Mr Waters and Mr Harper wasted no time paddling to their friend, dragging the bleeding 16-year-old onto their boards and turning towards the shore.

The four-metre-long shark had freed itself of Mr Allen’s leg rope by that time and “began to pursue the boys at a close distance”.

Mr Allen was later treated for puncture wounds to his thigh at Lismore Hospital and his two friends, who saved his life that fateful September 2016 day, were honoured with bravery medals today.

RUNNING INTO A BURNING HOME

Daniel McMillan was standing outside a burning Perth home when he heard screams coming from inside.

Arming himself with a fire extinguisher, Mr McMillan ran into the home and remembered smelling something similar to “burnt bacon”.

That smell was coming from the children of Edward John Herbert, who in a drug-induced psychosis, had set his three-year-old daughter on fire and also doused her autistic sister with petrol.

“I’m not sure what was going through my mind. I wasn’t really thinking about it, that’s probably why I did what I did,” he told AAP.

Herbert lunged at his neighbour with a filleting knife that had a 20cm blade, attempting to stab Mr McMillan in the abdomen.

But Mr McMillan was able to dodge the attack and hit Herbert on the head with the fire extinguisher.

“I just did what I thought was right at the time. More people should do these things, then the world might be a better place.”

Herbert was sentenced to 17 years behind bars for the horror attack.

SAVING PEOPLE FROM A RIP

Gold Coast local Ryan Martin was awarded with a posthumous bravery award after he drowned while saving a boy from a rip.

It was Good Friday in 2016 and Mr Martin and his girlfriend were enjoying the day off when they noticed a mum and her daughter struggling.

Rihanna Milabo and her mum Shyra were in waist-deep water when a rip at the notorious Fingal Head swept them out to sea.

Mr Martin raced in to help the pair and kept the young girl afloat.

Exhausted, another man helping with the rescue urged him to swim in but Mr Martin refused to leave Rihanna.

Lifesavers rescued Rihanna, who was unconscious but when they went back to Mr Martin, he could not be saved.

Speaking to the Courier-Mail, Mr Martin’s brother Josh said: “We are so grateful that Ryan’s been publicly recognised for his bravery and ultimate sacrifice to save a life, but we will continue to miss him every day.”

Ryan Martin died in an attempt to save a family from drowning at Fingal HeadlandSource:Instagram

WARDING OFF A DRUG-DEALING GANG

Kesley Burgess was born a hero, his mum said, but now — eight years after his death — his bravery is “cemented in history”.

Tracey Burgess could only watch as 25-year-old Kesley armed himself with a sword and stepped into their hallway to fight off a drug-dealing gang who had stormed their home in July 2010.

The invaders were armed with machetes and meat cleavers.

Kesley pushed his mother and girlfriend into a bedroom before striking one of the four thieves as they ransacked his home looking for drugs and cash. Another invader hit Kesley in the back, then the rest of the gang turned on him. “By the time my son got to the hospital there wasn’t a drop of blood left in him,” Ms Burgess told AAP.

“His wounds were like something you’d see in the third world. It shouldn’t happen here, not in Australia”.

Ms Burgess said her son was her “best friend”, her “rock”, her “everything” and the man of the house.

“He was a family hero even from when he was small, he just looked after his friends and his brothers,” she said.

“But — for what he did that night trying to protect us — I can’t find words. He gave his life for us.”

Ms Burgess said she’ll accept her son’s accolade “with a heavy heart” alongside his youngest brother, Jacob, who has had to lead the family in the wake of Kesley’s death.

“My first stop after that will be the cemetery,” she said.

“I’ll take it to him, I know it might sound silly to some people but I’ll go talk to him.” She said her son would have been thrilled to receive his commendation. “I raised my boys right,” she said.

“He’s a hero and I hope it’s cemented in history now.”

FACE-TO-FACE WITH A COLLAR BOMB

Police officer Matthew Bruce Warwick was another recipient, seven years after he helped Sydney schoolgirl Madeleine Pulver when a suspected collar bomb was strapped to her neck.

It was August 2011 when then NSW Police Senior Constable Warwick was called to Ms Pulver’s Mosman home.

Mr Warwick was working with the bomb detection dog unit and him and his police dog were tasked with sweeping the expansive home for explosives and later helping police negotiators inspect the device strapped to the teenager.

After a harrowing 10 hours, police determined the bomb was fake and managed to free her.

Some amazing feats but non First Aid orientated which is interesting. Book your first aid training at www.canberrafirstaid.com

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Anaphylaxis isn’t fussy eating, it’s life or death.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw it.

The red colour rolled across her face. The hives around her chin appeared gradually as her neck, her hands, her face swelled. She was talking, but slowly the flow of air to her lungs slowed.

Her clear, blue eyes were still with fear.

But somehow she remained calm. She told me to get the Epipen and then call an ambulance. She took care of the rest.

“Hi, my name’s Siobhan,” I said to the lady on the end of the line, “and my sister Erin is having an anaphylactic reaction.”

Soon we heard the sirens and saw the flashing lights. Thanks to the adrenaline Erin’s condition was improving but they took her to hospital anyway.

That was the most serious reaction I’ve seen Erin have and I’ll never forget it. The way her eyes looked. Terrified.  Masked only with her determination to survive.

Erin has no less than five anaphylactic allergies. She can’t eat nuts, seafood, legumes, kiwi fruit or be administered a non-steroidal agent. It’s because there are so many things that could kill her that makes the current Epipen shortage particularity worrying.

Recently Erin was told by a pharmacist that it’s unlikely she will be able to get her hands on a life-saving Epipen when her current batch expires, and instead she should use two children’s Epipens. This isn’t because a child’s Epipen has the same dose that an adult’s does, but simply because there is no other option should she have a reaction.

It’s for this reason that understanding the seriousness of anaphylaxis is so important. When Erin requests no chickpeas in her salad or no kiwi fruit in her smoothie when she eats out it’s not because she prefers not to eat them but because if she does she could lose her life.

I’ve often thought in a world where vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, all organic, sustainably farmed and diary free (sometimes all at once) are readily available for those who want it, there’d be scope to understand those who don’t have the luxury of choosing what they can and cannot eat.

It’s for this reason that I still carry guilt for what I did nearly two years ago. It was Christmas morning and Erin and I were with our parents in Germany visiting family for the festive season. It was my day for the morning bread run, so I shuffled myself down to the bakery at Cologne central station and got a wide assortment of fresh rolls.

At breakfast Erin chose one of the heavily seeded rolls and she looked at me and asked, “does this have nuts in it?”

I rolled my eyes.

“It’s a bread roll, they don’t put nuts in rolls here, just seeds.”

She trusted me, but she shouldn’t have.

The first sign for her was the itchy tongue and the tightening throat. For us it was the reddening face and the swelling hands like it always is. She stopped eating fast enough to halt the reaction’s progress but she was unwell for the rest of the day.

But she wasn’t the only one who was sick. My stomach churned until I felt nauseous. That reaction was entirely my fault.

And what’s worse — I constantly harp on about people not taking the issue of anaphylaxis seriously.

I’m always saying how people need to understand that anaphylaxis is not a lifestyle choice, but a serious life-threatening issue. I’m outspoken about the Epipen shortage and what that would mean for people like Erin whose lives literally depend on that medication.

If there’s a lesson to be learned, you can learn it from me and how I endangered my sister’s life with a frustrated eye roll and without a second thought that what she was asking wasn’t fussy, but legitimate.

I have witnessed the delicate balance Erin manages between allergies and food choices since we were kids, but even I need reminding sometimes about just how important understanding the gravity of the issue is.

Even I need reminding just how easily a life can be taken by the simple act of eating the wrong thing, or the correct medication being unavailable or people simply not understanding that the wrong food could kill.

Since the bread roll incident I’ve been more conscious to take her worries seriously and be mindful about the food products I buy.

We’re lucky because Erin’s friends and our wider family have always been on board and often prepare her allergy-free food when we attend events or parties, but what has stuck with me the most is how accidental a death by anaphylaxis could be.

It could be as simple as buying a bread roll for your sister, her eating it and that bread roll ending her life.

Book in to learn more about anaphylaxis on our first aid courses in Canberra. www.canberrafirstaid.com