Surf Life Saving Australia

Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) is Australia’s major water safety and rescue authority and is one of the largest volunteer organisations in the country. It's mission is “to provide a safe beach and aquatic environment throughout Australia.”

SLSA and its state centres provide patrol services on around 300 of the 11,011 beaches around Australia’s 36,7352 km of coastline.

In addition to this core service and responsibility, SLSA also contributes to the community by:

• Training volunteer surf lifesavers and lifeguards to undertake rescues, administer first aid and take preventative actions to keep our beaches safe;

• Developing and implementing community and school education programs, including to regional and rural communities.

• Providing helicopter, jet and offshore rescue boat services;

• Collecting and maintaining a database of geographical conditions, wave action and hazard ratings on all beaches in Australia;

• Developing an understanding of beach safety by maintaining a database of all coastal drownings, major incidents and first aid treatments attended by SLSA lifesavers or lifeguards;

• Managing and delivering surf sports events, including the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships.

SLSA is a volunteer organisation and its services are provided by surf lifesavers who complete surf patrols in their own time – usually a half-day patrol every 2 to 3 weeks. SLSA total membership of more than 113,000 is spread across 304 affiliated surf lifesaving clubs in every Australian state and the Northern Territory. Of these, around 34,000 actively patrol Australia's beaches.

In the 2004/05 season, its volunteer members were involved in 12,232 rescues, taking to more than 500,000 the total number of lives saved since the formation of the original surf lifesaving association in 1907. Surf lifesavers also provided 28,621 first aid services and undertook 252,864 preventative actions during the season.

SLSA provides around 70 per cent of professional lifeguard services contracted to local council or resort operators. In 2004-05, Australian Lifeguard Service (ALS) lifeguards were involved in 2,369 rescues, 9,028 first aid treatments and 291,925 preventative actions. Surf Life Saving Australia is a charity and relies on the generous support of the public and its sponsors – DHL, Telstra, Insurance Australia Group (through its various brands – NRMA Insurance, SGIC & SGIO), Kellogg Australia, Yamaha, Westpac (through the Life Saver Rescue Helicopters), Willow Ware, Nivea - and the Australian Government.

In 2007, SLSA will celebrate one hundred years since the formation of the Surf Bathing Association of NSW. The Federal Government has declared that 2007 will be officially known as The Year of the Surf Lifesaver, in commemoration of this milestone

External link

 * Surf Life Saving Australia
 * Surf Life Saving NSW
 * Surf Life Saving Victoria
 * Surf Life Saving Western Australia

Surf Life Saving Australia