OLDEST - Active Surf Lifesaving Club in the World - Bondi Beach, Australia
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S 33° 53.398 E 151° 16.686
56H E 340772 N 6248709
Bondi Surf Bather's Life Saving Club is located on Campbell Parade, North Bondi NSW 2026, Australia. It is the oldest active surf lifesaving club in the world.
Waymark Code: WMVEDX
Location: New South Wales, Australia
Date Posted: 04/08/2017
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The Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club is officially recognised by Surf Life Saving Australia as the first surf lifesaving club in Australia. It is also the oldest active surf lifesaving club in the world. It is an Australian icon and holds an indelible position in Australian history. The primary objective of surf lifesaving was – and is – to protect the bathers who frequent the beaches through manned patrols and associated services.
The Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club was established on the 21st February 1907 at the Royal Hotel Bondi Beach by a group of like-minded bathers. The club was responsible for introducing surf lifesaving to Australia and pioneered the famous surf reel and line. A notable early rescue was one of a young boy by the name of Charlie Smith who later went on to become the famous aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. This rescue was carried out on January 2nd 1907, prior to the club being formed and not with the famous reel which wasn’t invented yet.
The moment that thrust Bondi and surf lifesaving into the public arena was Sunday 6th February 1938. Thirty-one years after the club was founded Bondi members performed over 300 rescues after hundreds of swimmers were swept out to sea by a series of large waves. At the end of the day five lives were lost and the occasion was forever etched into Australian history as ‘Black Sunday’.
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