The Bondi Surf Bathers' Life Saving Club is Australia's oldest Surf Life Saving Club, founded in 1907. The club was officially established on 21 February 1907 at the Royal Hotel in Bondi, New South Wales. The club's aim is to ensure "No Lives Lost" at Bondi Beach and is a volunteer organisation that patrols Bondi Beach from October to April every year.
On 13 November 1902, two policemen attended Bondi and started taking names of those dressed in "small trunks" (i.e., as distinct from "proper", conventional bathing suits).[2] The Rector of St Mary's, Waverley, Rev. Robert McKeown (1847-1936), and one of the original members of the Waverley Cricket CLub, Frank McElhone (1866-1925),[3] were apprehended by the police for bathing outside the permitted hours. According to police sub-inspector McDonald, in his submission to Edmund Fosbery, the inspector-general of NSW police, "the beach had been used as a bathing-place for 20 years";[2] and, in response, Fosbery informed the Waverley Council of his position on the matter:
"So long as bathers wear suitable costumes, and public decency is not outraged, I am unable to see that a practice permitted for so many years should be stopped. Indeed, I do not suppose that the magistrates would inflict penalties for any breach of the Act under the circumstances. Unless, therefore, I receive instructions from the Government to the contrary I do not see my way to take action beyond instructing the police that decency is to be observed."[2]
As the laws were relaxed, more and more people chose to swim in the ocean, and it became obvious that they needed to be protected from the strong currents and rips. Between November 1902 and February 1907, groups were formed at many Sydney beaches with a view to protecting beachgoers.
Chas. Smith
On 2 January 1907 two 9-year-old boys, "Chas. Smith, living at McMahon's Point", and "Rupert Swallow, a resident of Darlinghurst" were rescued at Bondi Beach, having been swept out to sea by a stong undertow. Swallow was safely brought to shore; whilst Smith, brought to shore unconscious, was only revived by the "restorative measures" applied by Nurse Sadie Amy Sweeney (1872-1907), the matron at her own private hospital and nursing home in Quirindi,[4] who just happened to be on the scene at the time, and who had taken over when the rescuers had given up all hope.[5][6] At the time of her life-saving intervention Sadie Sweeney was far from well;[7] she died seven weeks later, failing to recuperate following the second of two surgical interventions.[8][9]
For many years the belief that this "Chas. Smith" became Charles Kingsford Smith was thought to be mistaken. However Ann Blainey's detailed historical research (2018, passim) revealed that (a) "Chas. Smith" did, indeed, become Charles Kingsford Smith, (b) that Smith and Swallow were cousins, and (c) that their mothers were sisters.
Bondi Surf Bathers' Life Saving Club
Bondi Surf Bathers' Life Saving Club was formed at a meeting at the Royal Hotel, Bondi, on 21 February 1907.[10] This was documented in formal Minutes of the meeting (copy held at Waverley Library) and a letter from the library confirming receipt at the time.
The club hosted some displays in March 1907.[11][12] Bondi Life Savers were in full action by the time of this “Plucky rescue” in September 1907,[13] and had saved 34 people over the first full season.[14]
By 1910 both Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving Club and Bondi Surf and Social Club (changed to North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club in 1911) were building up membership and awareness.[15]
The first duty roster was drawn up in August 1908, and a test swim as a prerequisite for club membership was introduced that September.
The first Bronze Medallion squad was examined at Bondi Beach on 2 January 1910. It comprised four members of the Bondi SBLSC and the Coogee Life Saving Brigade.
As a result of a visit to Tweed Heads by the Bondi Baths Life Saving Club, a number of young men at Tweed Heads and Coolangatta formed a surf club on 12 April 1909, at Greenmount Beach, under the title of the Tweed Heads Surf and Life Saving Club. This was the pioneer club of the Surf Life Saving movement in Queensland.
On 6 February 1938, three giant waves washed out to sea hundreds of swimmers in a day remembered as Black Sunday. 200 were rescued by the club's lifesavers, five died and 35 were resuscitated.[16] The event was reenacted 80 years later in 2018.[17]
In November 1965, the Club created its Nippers group.[18]
"The Reel"
The Bondi Surf Bathers' Life Saving Club (24 March 1907): the Club's original members in club costume, displaying the reel, line, and harness. The inventor of the reel, Lyster Ormsby, is the lifesaver at the left of the back row.
The Surf Line and Belt (commonly called "the Reel") was chosen as the logo of the Bondi Surf Bathers' Life Saving Club because Lyster Charles Irwin Ormsby (1885-1941),[21][22][23] one of the Club's founding members and its first Club Captain, was responsible for its creation.
Ormsby constructed a model "contrived from hair pins and a cotton reel" and took it to Olding and Parker, the Paddington coachbuilders, who built the surf reel that was displayed and first used on Bondi Beach on 23 December 1906.[24] Ormsby's apparatus (reel, line, and harness)[25] allowed a lifesaver, wearing a cork jacket, to swim out and reach a patient and, then, both would be pulled back to the shore, per medium of the line connecting the cork jacket to the reel, by the crew on the beach — an activity that required discipline and control for its efficient performance.[12]
While lifesaving competitions still include the use of the reel, it was phased out of active service for rescues in 1994 – now "Rubber Duckies" and "Boards" carry out most rescues.
Australia's oldest Surf Life Saving Club
The Bondi Surf Bathers' Life Saving Club, officially established at a meeting at the Royal Hotel, Bondi on 21 February 1907,[26][27] is Australia's oldest Surf Life Saving Club.
Although Manly Surf Club and Bronte Surf Lifesaving Club also claimed to be the 'first life saving club', there are no primary sources to support their claims. Bronte's claim is based on an affidavit made in 1931 that they were first, and some meeting minutes in 1907 which stated that it was the 4th AGM – but there are no documents to verify either of these. This may be due to confusion as the Bronte Surf Bathing Association President sent a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald on 8 May 1907 saying "this association has lately formed, or is now forming, a brigade consisting of strong surf swimmers, and known as the Bronte Surf Life Brigade",[28] and a brief news item on the same day in the Evening News states "The Bronte Surf-Bathing Association is about to establish a life-saving brigade".[29] This "Bronte Surf Brigade" later became the Bronte Surf Lifesaving Club.
In 2005, Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) historians, having reviewed all claims, stated that they recognised Bondi as the first surf life saving club.[30]
"A hardly perennial in surf lifesaving history is the question of the first surf club — Bondi or Bronte. As this study has shown, the first group of organised lifesavers formed on Manly Beach in 1899. While moves on Bondi, Bronte and Manly in early 1907 saw the organisation of irregulars, it was the surf bathers of Bondi who first organised themselves as a formal club in February 1907." — Sean Brawley (2006)[31]
Competition
Bondi is the 2018[32] & 2017 Australian Masters Champions in the Australian Titles and 2017 Australian Pool Rescue Championships.[33] Bondi has won more SLSA Premierships than any other club. Notably 1914/1915, 1921/22, 1922/23, 1923/24, 1925/26, 1928/29, 1921/32, 1934/35, 1937/38, 1939/40, 1971/72, 1989/90, 1991/92, 2006/06 & 2007/08. This number of wins is unique to the club.
↑"Mr Frank McElhone". Sydney Morning Herald. No.27, 306. New South Wales, Australia. 11 July 1925. p.14. Retrieved 19 April 2018– via National Library of Australia.
↑"LIFE-SAVING". Sydney Morning Herald. No.21, 583. New South Wales, Australia. 22 March 1907. p.4. Retrieved 19 April 2018– via National Library of Australia.
↑"AMONG THE BREAKERS". The Sunday Sun. No.254. New South Wales, Australia. 9 February 1908. p.16. Retrieved 19 April 2018– via National Library of Australia.
↑"BONDI". The Sun. No.73. New South Wales, Australia. 23 September 1910. p.10 (FINAL EXTRA). Retrieved 19 April 2018– via National Library of Australia.
↑Based upon the mistaken views of Maxwell (1949), the Bondi club held (for 50 or more years) that it had been formed in February 1906 — hence the images of "established 1906" and references to "6 February 1906" in incorrect histories — However, in 2006, based on the SLSA historians' (2005) research, Bondi resolved to officially change all foundation dates to recognise the more accurate information (see Laney, 2007).
Blainey, Ann (2018), King of the Air: The Turbulent Life of Charles Kingsford Smith, Carlton, Vic: Black Inc. ISBN978-1-7606-4107-8
Brawley, Sean (2006), "Surf Bathing and Surf Lifesaving: Origins and Beginnings", pp.22-47 in Edwin Jaggard (2006), Between the Flags: One Hundred Summers of Australian Surf Lifesaving, Sydney, NSW: University of New South Wales Press, 2006. ISBN978-0-86840-897-2
Brawley, Sean (2007), The Bondi Lifesaver: A History of an Australian Icon, Sydney: ABC Books. ISBN978-0-7333-1763-7
Maxwell, C. Bede (1949), Surf: Australians Against the Sea, Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
Reeder, Stephanie Owen (Briony Stewart, illustrator) (2019), Trouble in the Surf, Canberra, ACT: National Library of Australia. ISBN978-0-6422-7946-0 [A picture book, written for young children which tells the story of the young Charles Kingsford Smith's 1907 life-saving rescue at Bondi Beach.]
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