Key Takeaways
- The red and yellow flags used to denote safe and patrolled areas of Australian beaches are not universally understood and can be misinterpreted by international visitors.
- The flags are tied to a century of lifesaving culture, volunteerism, and community trust in Australia, but their meaning is not easily understood by people born overseas.
- Research shows that international students and visitors often misinterpret the red and yellow flags, and that the system is not working to prevent drowning rates in Australia.
- The use of different colors and symbols to communicate beach safety in different countries can lead to confusion and misinterpretation.
- Redesigning the flags or changing the safety message to "stay between the flags" could help improve understanding and reduce drowning rates.
Introduction to Beach Safety
Every summer in Australia, millions of people head to the beach, and every year, thousands are rescued by lifeguards or Surf Life Savers and even surfers or other bystanders. The red and yellow flags, iconic to many Australians, are meant to be a simple and easy to understand message, denoting a safe and patrolled place to go in the water at the beach. However, for many international visitors, the message is less clear, and research shows that international students often misinterpret what beach flags indicate, relying on visual cues like other swimmers, or assuming calm water is safe.
The History and Meaning of the Red and Yellow Flags
The red and yellow flags have been a part of Australian beach culture and safety since the 1930s, marking the patrolled area of the beach. The idea is that if someone swims between these flags, they are under the watchful eye of professional lifeguards and/or volunteer surf lifesavers. Usually, the flags are positioned on an area of beach away from rip currents, which are responsible for an average 26 drownings a year and the vast majority of surf rescues. However, recent studies found that about 70 per cent of South Korean university students and 60 per cent of Japanese students interpreted the red and yellow flags as indicating a dangerous area.
Global Variations in Beach Safety Systems
Globally, beach flag systems are not standardized. For instance, in Brazil, Spain, and some areas of the United States, beaches use a traffic-light color system: green for safe, yellow for caution, and red for danger or closed conditions. Portugal sometimes adds purple flags to warn of marine stingers such as jellyfish. The International Life Saving Federation recommends a global set of eight beach safety flags, including the familiar red-and-yellow for patrolled swimming areas, red for high hazard, yellow for medium hazard, and black-and-white for watercraft zones. Unlike some countries, the federation explicitly discourages green flags to denote "safe" conditions, on the grounds that no beach or even patrolled area can ever be completely risk-free.
Communicating Beach Safety
Even if people don’t know what the flag colors mean, in Australia beach signs often say "swim between the flags". But research at Bondi Beach in Sydney found that around 30 per cent of overseas-born beachgoers misunderstood this message, thinking "swim between the flags" meant only people who can actually swim should go there. Translation tools are not a reliable fix, as key hazard terms are often incorrectly translated by Google Translate. For example, the term "shore dump" is currently rendered in simplified Chinese as "岸边垃圾场" (àn biān lèsè chǎng), which means "a place on the shore to dump rubbish".
The Need for Change
Redesigning the flags might help, and a recent study conducted in Europe developed and examined a modified version of the red and yellow beach safety flag, incorporating a pictogram of a lifesaver. This study found adding the pictogram nearly doubled participants’ correct understanding of the flags. Some experts have also advised that changing "swim between the flags" to "stay between the flags" could improve the translation, as "swim" has different connotations in different cultures and languages. Simply changing the colors of flags for Australian beaches may not be enough, but testing whether green flags improve beach safety communication could be a step in the right direction.
Conclusion
The red and yellow flags are an important part of Australian beach culture and safety, but their meaning is not easily understood by people born overseas. The system is not working to prevent drowning rates in Australia, and it is time to consider changes to the flags or the safety message. By redesigning the flags or changing the safety message, we can reduce the risk of misinterpretation and improve beach safety for international visitors. It is also important to recognize that the use of different colors and symbols to communicate beach safety in different countries can lead to confusion and misinterpretation, and that a standardized system could help to reduce the risk of drowning.