Authorities have suspended or scaled back their searches for three people who went missing in separate incidents off the nation's coastline.
Hope continues to fade for a 14-year-old boy who was swept into the water when the dinghy he was on capsized on New Year's Eve.
The teen and two other men were in the vessel when it overturned in rough conditions around Barrenjoey Headland on Sydney's northern beaches about 11.35am.
A man was pulled from the water by surf lifesavers and treated by paramedics, but he died at the scene, and the second man was winched to safety by helicopter.
A large-scale search for the teenager was called off on Saturday morning.
Search efforts have also been suspended for a 25-year-old man who was caught in a rip just after 6am on New Year's Day.
He and two friends entered the water at Sydney's popular Coogee Beach before they were spotted struggling in a rough swell.
Television news footage showed a fully clothed police officer entering the water to try to save the man but he slipped away. Two other people were rescued by off-duty lifesavers.
A snorkeller who went missing on Thursday afternoon in the ocean off Ledge Point Beach, more than 100km north of Perth, is also feared dead.
The 32-year-old man was part of a group of four divers from Perth who were snorkelling for crayfish, according to WA Police.
Police divers became involved in the search but by Friday evening with no sight of the man, the search was scaled back.
'Absolutely horrendous'
The search efforts follow five drownings since New Year's Eve.
Two women and two men died off the NSW coast and an Irish national drowned at a popular Queensland tourist beach.
Speaking to Sydney's 2GB radio on Friday, Surf Life Saving NSW CEO Steve Pearce described the death toll so far for 2026 as "absolutely horrendous".
The tragic start to 2026 began when a 25-year-old woman, believed to be a Chinese national, was hit by a wave that knocked her into a tidal rock pool at Maroubra on Sydney's eastern beaches.
She was found about 5am on Thursday and could not be resuscitated.
At nearby Coogee Beach, surf lifesavers on jet skis were searching for a missing swimmer after emergency services were alerted just after 6am on Thursday.
Television news footage showed a fully clothed police officer entering the water to try to save the 25-year-old man, but he slipped away. Two other people were rescued.
The search and rescue mission for the missing swimmer is continuing with jet skis and several marine police watercraft deployed, but there are grave fears for the man's survival.
On Thursday afternoon, a 45-year-old woman was pulled from the water off Dunbogan Beach on the NSW mid north coast, but she could not be revived.
Further north in Queensland's Whitsundays, a 35-year-old Irish man was found dead in the water on New Year's Eve at Whitehaven Beach.
Further north in Queensland's Whitsundays, a 35-year-old Irish man was found dead in the water on New Year's Eve at Whitehaven Beach.
Surf lifesavers say they have performed hundreds of rescues across the nation's beaches since Christmas Day.
Over the New Year period, the risk of drowning is three times greater than at any other time of the year.
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