By GREG ANSLEY Australia correspondent
CANBERRA - Australia's volunteer surf lifesavers, the bronzed icons of the nation's beach culture, may be forced to pack up their flags and reels by skyrocketing insurance costs.
The latest victims in a national public liability crisis that has hammered business, sporting and cultural life across the
continent, the surf lifesaving movement has just one month to raise an extra A$1 million ($1.4 million) to keep them saving lives this summer.
Without public liability insurance to protect them from potential lawsuits and massive payouts - one man sued a Sydney council for A$3 million after being paralysed body-surfing - surf clubs could not risk the patrols that have made them world famous.
This week their national organisation, Surf Life Saving Australia, was told its insurance premium had skyrocketed by 152 per cent this year.
Club membership fees will inevitably rise, meaning that individual lifesavers will further subsidise the safety of the millions of Australians and tourists who pack the continent's beaches every summer.
How long the 1000 lifesavers who start their patrols this weekend will be able to keep the beaches safe is now in doubt.
"If this situation is not properly recognised and resolved we may be forced to leave the beaches in a number of years," said Surf Life Saving Australia chief executive Greg Nance.
Governments have moved to help keep the beaches open by protecting individual lifesavers - and, in New South Wales and Queensland, their clubs - from litigation.
But Nance said organisations such as Surf Life Saving Australia were still vulnerable.
The loss of volunteer lifesavers, or even a significant reduction in their patrols, would be serious for a country that regards the beach as its second home.
Every year, surf lifesavers pull almost 12,000 people from the ocean.
They also provide first aid and medical assistance to more than 8000 other beachgoers, and are involved in 2200 helicopter rescues.
Launching a national appeal to raise the A$1 million needed to cover the yawning premium gap, Surf Life Saving Australia marketing manager Michael Hornby said surf clubs had faced increases in some states of up to 500 per cent over the past five years.
"For the first time we are calling on the public to help us. We're desperate."
