As the summer army of volunteer surf lifesavers return to 23 of the Gold Coast’s beaches this weekend to begin the patrol season, the figures show a shocking increase in coastal and waterways drownings and fatalities over the past year.

In the past 12 months, 339 people drowned occurred across Australia. Of those, 84 people drowned in Queensland.

Australia-wide, the figures show 141 of the drowning deaths occurred along the coast, which is the highest toll since 2004, and a 16 per cent increase on the 10-year average.

Of the 141 national coastal drownings, 30 were off the Queensland coast.

Seven people drowned off the Gold Coast’s famous 70-kilometre-stretch of beaches.

There were 43 people who drowned in flood waters across Australia. More than half of those, a total of 26 drowning deaths in flood waters, were in Queensland.

The figures released Friday by Australia’s leading water safety authorities, the Royal Life Saving Society of Australia and Surf Life Saving Australia, has prompted an urgent plea to be water safe this summer.

Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) CEO, Adam Weir said the harrowing toll over the past season was the worst in 18 years of collecting coastal drowning information.

“Despite performing more than 8,600 rescues and over 58,300 first aid treatments, there were 141 coastal drowning deaths recorded. This is a distressing result for all emergency service groups in addition to being devastating to so many families, friends and loved ones,” Weir said.

The report found almost half of the coastal drowning deaths occurred more than 5 kilometres from a surf lifesaving service, such as a flagged swimming area, which authorities believe may reflect people seeking out more secluded swimming spots.

Men accounted for 83 per cent of the drowning deaths.

Weir said it was feared post-Covid behaviour had also contributed to the number of drownings and rescues last season.

Both organisations highlighted concerns over people being more likely to visit unfamiliar, unpatrolled water locations.

They said children also lacked swimming skills necessary to enjoy the water safely because many swimming lessons had been cancelled during years of Covid to lockdowns and restrictions.

Royal Life Saving Society Australia chief executive Justin Scarr said while fewer infants and toddlers drowned than in previous years, there was a slight increase in deaths among children aged five to 14.

“Increased drowning deaths in school-aged children is tragic and may be a sign of generational impacts of lessons missed due to Covid-19,” Scarr said.

“Swimming and water safety lessons are critical to child safety.”