Australia's High Com-missioner to the Eastern Caribbean has described as "very unfortunate", last Thursday's murder of an Australian sailor in Antigua, but said his country would not be urging its citizens to stay away from the Caribbean nation.

Speaking to journalists here yesterday, Trinidad-based Philip Kentwell said, however, that it was his duty to provide information to Australians who were likely to travel to Antigua.

Last Thursday night, Drew Gollan, 38, was shot in the chest at close range as he walked with his girlfriend, Alena Sitkova, and their 21-month-old daughter, Carolina, in English Harbour, a popular tourist community on Antigua's south coast.

Police are treating the incident as a mugging attempt that escalated into something more.

"It is very unfortunate what has happened in Antigua," Kentwell said, adding, "We see this as part of a wider rise in crime across the Caribbean. That is obviously a concern."

Gollan's killing came six months after the brutal murder of two British tourists honeymooning in Antigua last summer - an incident that drew a significant amount of unwanted international media publicity for the island.