The photo above appears in the Queensland Royal Life Saving Carnival Programme for the 1916 Barry Cup.
The placement of a reel on Maroochydore beach on 1.1.1916 is the recognized beginning of Maroochydore Surf Life Saving Club (5). ("District Notes", Nambour Chronicle 7/1/1916 pages 2 and 3)
The subdivision and sale of land on the southern side of Cornmeal Creek (Cotton Tree) in 1915, where previously had only camped many holidaymakers, and the safety of these campers and the mariners using the Maroochy River to service settlement around Bli Bli (Petrie Creek) and Maroochy River (Dunethin Rock) localities, was a cause which urged the Nambour Progress Association to ask the Royal Life Saving Society (1) to provide this service.
Over the next 15 years until
- the formation of Surf Life Saving Queensland in 1931 (4)
it was a therefore a Royal Life Saving club (2), and was also
a prominent Queensland Amateur Swimming club (3), hosting
the 1916-17 440 yards championship of Queensland (1 Jan 1917);
possibly the 1918-19 1320 yards championship of Queensland (1 Jan 1919);
the 1919-20 100 yards breaststroke championship (1 Jan 1920; and
the 1920-21 100 yards championship (1 Jan 1921).
A reel shed was built by Vic Suosaari, and as this did allow sleepovers, that building can be considered as the first clubhouse, however a grander building was opened by the Queensland Governor on 4th November 1924 (Chronicle 7/11/1924 p. 7) subsequently superceding this earlier one. The local Maroochydore Chamber of Commerce Recreation Committee raised funds for this building to house both ambulance equipment, and for the patrolling lifesavers coming to the beach from the district’s outlying areas to sleep over and have an adequate clubhouse facility.
The emergence of Joe and Axel Suosaari as outstanding competitors of those times to 1931 (becoming Australian Champions of the pool), followed these early years’ developmental stages…
…and the Whalley Cup, Duncalfe Shield, O’Connor Shield/Cup, Stretton Shield and Colonel Cameron Shield were highly prized Trophies in those pre-State Centre times.
It is fair to thus claim then, that Maroochydore was, by Season 1930-31, the pre-eminent club of RLSSQ, and it was also, the Premier QASA Swimming Club.
Season 1930-31 and State Centre formation (4) saw a great structural change, and over the years that have followed, our club has contributed significantly to this Surf Life Saving movement, both administratively and competitively.
Our competitors were able to compete on a wider stage then, first against South Coast clubs in Queensland (again) and then too (finally!), against NSW at Australian Championships.
Allan and Jack Peterson were prominent Queensland champions in that new era with
the club R & R team being winners too,
and by 1937-38 season, Jack Evans attended the inaugural Interdominion Surf Championships at Bondi, in a Qld Surf State Centre Team.
In the 1938-39 season…our first national team representative (Arthur Scott) was selected for an Instructional Team to tour and promote Surf Life Saving to the RLSS Victorians.
[Jack and Arthur were also pioneer craft men, in that Arthur built the club’s first ski, while Jack invented the surf-o-plane, which he promoted as a rescue tool.] Our club’s first surfboat, the old Greenmount boat, was acquired in the 1934-35 season.]
The Second World War was another watershed event in the history of our club, for it took away many members, for periods to prevent their return to our “adolescent to mens’ grooming ground”, their 'second home’. Some failed to return to their home country, while others had matured through their war service, and were married by war’s end and settled elsewhere.
Our post War history and
- the emergence of National Championship winners;
- the growth of a Nipper organization to home breed the most successful competitor in the history of the surf life saving movement (Clint Robinson);
- Two Presidents of State Centre (Stan Wilcox and Ralph Devlin);
- host club of the National Championships (1980);
- the current National Headquarters’ CEO (Brett Williamson)…
…and further tales awaiting the telling…
…for more pages of the Maroochydore Surf Life Saving Club’s proud history...
...as will be recounted in Ralph Devlin's Centenary Edition of the History of the Club.
Picture Sunshine Coast link:
https://sunshinecoast.spydus.com/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/SET/OPAC/BIBENQ/15867843/0?NREC=0#53752126
Peter Rigby.
site construction commenced in 2008...
...with site revision ongoing...currently as at 25th February 2017.
The image below, was submitted to PSC by Edith Stirling, a daughter of Eric Eggins (last in the back row on right). It is the group gathered by Tom Prentis (third from left in second row) by his walking the district from Dunethin Rock though Bli Bli and across Petrie Ck and Rosemount, to Woombye), to muster a patrol for each weekend of summer 1922-23 and beyond.
