New South

"They're decisions that you really don't want to have to make," the Aboriginal woman from New South Wales tells the BBC.

A nine-year-old boy who got trapped between rocks at a New South Wales beach on Sunday has become the seventh person to drown in Australia over the Easter weekend.

Steven Pearce, the CEO of Surf Live Saving in New South Wales, where most of the fatalities occurred, told the ABC it was the "worst" spate of drownings on record for the Easter long weekend.

Surf Live Saving New South Wales said it has carried out more than 150 rescues since Good Friday.

Mr Pearce said a "perfect combination" of high temperatures, the holiday weekend, and dangerous ocean swells across much of New South Wales and Victoria caused the spike in deaths.