Surf Life Saving

The Tweed Heads Surf and Life-Saving club was the first official Life Saving club in Queensland and was formed in 1909 to patrol the Greenmount Beach .   It was initiated in 1908 by Sydney dentist Harold Bennett who brought an old line and belt to Tweed Heads from New South Wales for the purpose of forming a life saving club.

The first recorded rescue was on February 21, 1909, when lifesavers used a lifesaving reel off Greenmount Beach to rescue four young women and a young man who had been swept away by a rip. The iconic Aussie image of the Australian lifesaver with the red and gold cap has been as much a part of the Austrian ethos as the digger’s slouch hat.  Queensland has 59 surf life saving clubs and in the 2010/2011 period recorded saving 3,610 lives on Queensland beaches.

If you're spending New Year's Day at the beach in 2012 have a terrific time...and remember to swim between the flags :)

Happy New Year from all of us at the John Oxley Library.

Karen Hind, Librarian - State Library of Queensland