Lifesavers demand powers to control beach anarchy

By GREG ANSLEY

CANBERRA - The lemming-like rush of suntanned bodies began pouring on to Australia's beaches as the nation pulled down the shutters and raised the sun umbrellas for the summer break.

But with hundreds floundering in rips, the death toll rising and lifesavers battling almost without rest, the holiday season is shaping as the one that will change forever the sunscreened anarchy of sand and surf.

Next month, the New South Wales Government will meet surf lifesavers to consider their demand for tough laws that would compel swimmers to bathe between the flags, allow boogie-boards to be confiscated, force some swimmers to pay for their rescues and ban others from the beach.

While the notion of surf lifesavers as police officers does not sit well with everyone - including those who see huge problems of enforcement - it is a concept that is being closely watched outside the state, where surf clubs and local councils face similar problems of reckless swimmers as well as a rising threat of litigation.

But even if lifesavers get the powers they seek, they will remain an extremely thin, zinc-creamed line against a nation that regards untrammelled access to even the most dangerous of seas as its birthright.

The 270 clubs associated with Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) have about 25,000 patrolling members, who among them watch over 300 beaches - a mere handful of the almost 4700 accessible to swimmers.

Even on patrolled beaches, lifesavers are stretched to the limit.

They already have an eight-point plan in place to reduce drownings, launched after the number of surf deaths during the peak 1997-98 summer period more than doubled to 34, from an average 15.

But this summer has already given its own grim notice that more action may be needed.

On Christmas Day, Sydneysiders flocked to beaches as the temperature soared to 30 degrees.

And from Bondi to Cronulla, even in ankle-biting surf, lifesavers rescued 60 people from rips, all of them outside the flags.

At Elouera Beach, near Cronulla on the city's southern beaches, a 25-year-old pregnant woman and two men, aged 40 and 20, were pulled from the sea after floating unconscious beyond the patrolled area.

Despite the near-drownings and a line of lifesavers trying to herd swimmers back to the flags, Elouera on Boxing Day became almost a disaster area.

Lifesavers pulled 170 people from rips at the beach - about one-third of the more than 500 rescues made along the Sydney coastline that day.

A day later, a 36-year-old man drowned at Elouera and two others were saved after being found unconscious in the surf.

Elouera is a microcosm of surf lifesavings agonies. Crowds ignore repeated warnings and even disregard rescues from the rips they are about to enter.

Swimmers plunge back into treacherous seas within minutes of being pulled to shore; the public believes no one has the right to stand between it and the water; and the sheer weight of numbers makes the situation difficult to control.

In any summer 10,000 people or more will be pulled from the surf, half of them in New South Wales, one-third in Queensland and the rest spread around the country.

Most will have ignored the wave of televised warnings that blossom with summer, and will have treated almost with contempt the admonishments of lifesavers, who every morning plant their flags to mark the safest areas.

SLSA surveys show that while 96 per cent of swimmers know they should swim between the flags, less than two-thirds head for the patrolled areas. Many of those appear to be convinced of their own invulnerability, deterred by crowds or looking for better waves.

Others will be tourists who simply do not know better, prompting special publicity blitzes at the borders.

A study after the 1998-99 summer showed the risks - only one of the 33 surf drownings that summer occurred between the flags, and 13 people died within 1km of a lifesaving patrol.

For surf lifesavers, the frustrations of unnecessary deaths and their own impotence to prevent many of them have been steadily mounting.

They have mounted extensive education campaigns, pioneered the use of new lifesaving technology and launched a computerised beach safety and management programme that will eventually cover every accessible beach in Australia.

Yet the drownings continue.

Surf lifesavers have petitioned states to give them legislative recognition as a white-water rescue agency, defining their authority and responsibility and allowing them to attack surf drownings in a coordinated, nationwide approach similar to road accident campaigns.

This summer, as the lunacy continued - at one Sydney beach a boogie-boarder was rescued four times in a morning - lifesavers' patience came to an end.

They are demanding powers in NSW to enable them to force swimmers between the flags on patrolled beaches, although answers have yet to be found to enforcement, penalties and the sheer magnitude of packing thousands of often reluctant swimmers into the limited safe areas.

Legislators and lifesavers could face a legal minefield over any powers of arrest or detention.

The practical difficulties of getting identification from barely clothed swimmers are mind boggling, and lifesavers would almost certainly run greater risks of abuse and assault.

Lifesavers also want the power to close beaches in dangerous conditions and to confiscate boogie-boards or other equipment from surfers who ignore warnings and are repeatedly rescued.

They want to be able to require repeat offenders to pay for their rescues, and to have the power to ban persistent offenders from beaches.

The lifesavers will meet NSW Sport and Recreation Minister John Watkins next month in a bid to gain his backing for greater powers.