{"id":384761,"date":"2026-01-01T13:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T13:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/384761\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T13:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T13:22:09","slug":"irish-man-35-drowns-at-whitehaven-beach-on-new-years-eve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/384761\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish man, 35, drowns at Whitehaven Beach on New Year&#8217;s Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">A 35-year-old man from Ireland has drowned in waters off an iconic beach in the Whitsundays.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Emergency services said the man was found lifeless in the water at Whitehaven Beach about 11am on New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">It is the second incident at the beach in nearly a week, after authorities responded to a near-drowning of another man on December 23.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A coastal town next to blue water with sail boats\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au\/25f9b6bfa7825332073e7b6f2edbc6be?impolicy=wcms_crop_resize&amp;cropH=785&amp;cropW=1178&amp;xPos=106&amp;yPos=0&amp;width=862&amp;height=575\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands each year. (Supplied: Whitsunday Regional Council)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The Queensland Department of Environment would not comment on the incident but referred the ABC to safety advice on its website.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">It said tourists on the Whitsunday Islands were responsible for their own safety.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Whitehaven is famous for its white sand and is popular with tourists and boaties. There are no lifeguards at the beach, and the department warns mobile reception is limited and medical help can be hours away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">A report is being prepared for the coroner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 35-year-old man from Ireland has drowned in waters off an iconic beach in the Whitsundays. Emergency services&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[23979,43,10969,44,41,39,42,40,6771,26681,199970],"class_list":["post-384761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-drowning","tag-headlines","tag-irish","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-tourism","tag-tourist","tag-whitsundays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}