Royal Life Saving NSW undertook a site safety audit of the popular swimming spot in April and is currently finalising the report and recommendations.

A council spokesman said staff would be discussing the recommendations with Royal Life Saving NSW within the next two weeks before preparing a report to present to councillors.

It comes after community members called for the installation of a defibrillator at the beach following the near-drowning of a man in the Murrumbidgee River in December, whose life was saved by off-duty nurses and doctors who happened to be at the scene.

In the aftermath of the incident, The Daily Advertiser revealed that council had failed to complete its own water safety management plan for the river two years after it was unanimously agreed to by councillors.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Council has implemented some of the recommendations including an "Outback Lifesavers" river swimming education program, as well as public safety awareness campaigning.

However, one of the uncompleted items of the original report's 13 recommendations was to investigate the installation of vandal-proof waterway rescue cabinets containing publicly accessible safety equipment, including potentially a defibrillator.

In April, The Daily Advertiser followed up on the issue with Wagga City Council who said it would wait until it received the results of the Royal Life Saving NSW safety audit before making any decision on a defibrillator.

Royal Life Saving NSW Riverina regional manager Mick Dasey said he was waiting to hear from Sydney-based staff who visited Wagga to carry out the new investigation.

"My personal view is that defibrillators should be everywhere, but again there's a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in those regards as to how those things are managed. So we'll wait and see what the report identifies," he said.

"I think the council is moving in the right direction. the Outback [Lifesavers] program was a big tick."

Where to put a defibrillator, how to keep the approximately $2500 equipment safe from vandals and whose responsibility it would be to maintain would all need to be considered, Mr Dasey said.

Council is about to commence works on its $9.93 million Riverside Stage Two upgrade of the precinct near the Wagga Beach, which is currently intending to complete by mid-next year after an 18 month delay.

Mr Dasey said it would be hard to make a final call on safety upgrades at the beach before the Riverside project is "done and dusted".

"Because while you could make a comment on something now, in 12 months' time or 2 years' time the whole environment down there could change," he said.

Figures from first-aid organisation St John Ambulance show that every year about 25,000 people in Australia experience a sudden cardiac arrest out of hospital, with a current survival rate of 5 per cent.

However, their figures show that if a defibrillator is used within the first two to three minutes, the chance of survival increases to 70 per cent.