This is a photo of some of the absolute legends and stalwarts of the club a long time ago I’d guess the early sixties
This is one picture of a championship winning team
That includes Colin Beaton , Wally Pervis , Billy Featherstone , Les Legg, Ron Gilmore , and my dad , Curly Gardner .
These men were part of a lifesaving club that they and many others busted their backs to build the club from scratch with completely voluntary time that they all put in to provide a safe swimming place for everyone,
And they started to build the lookout and hall by firstly buy hand making the bricks , that they used in construction of those buildings, I would guess that Wally would have directed and supervised the construction process there .
Many of these members ware later recognised as life members for their selfless efforts and time donated to the club and are on honour boards in the hall.
Now I want to fast forward to when I was fifteen and joined the club , I was an ok swimmer by then as I had done my herald sun award and also swam laps in the Wonthaggi heated indoor pool twice a week before school .
I thoroughly enjoyed it and took to everyone and everything that was involved easily both with patrols and socially.
I earned my first few awards quite easily but later on I had to struggle a bit with a thing called scientific swims , but in the end I got through then and earnt the higest award available , the award of merit .
So Cape Patterson is a great beach to take you and your kids , and the lifesavers made it even safer when it undertook another project at the beach by blasting and constructing the rock pool that you see when you stand at the lookout on your right. Believe it or not it has a drain plug ,that I have pulled out once .
When I joined the club ,
George Scott was the president, and he worked tirelessly along side his wife Joan , and their thee children also were active members Mark , Wayne and Michelle ,
and I had a thought the other day that between them all and their partners if you could add up their voluntary hours over their history in this great club
I feel it would be a whole lifetime at least fifty years they are incredible.
Mark was a bit older than me when I joined and he was patrol captain of the irb ,
inflatable rubber boat that you see at the waters edge , and he took me on my first ride as crew
I quickly was aloud to be the driver of the boat and spent many hours training in the irb for rescues , alone with two of my sisters Debbie and Megan ,
And once while I was driving out off undertow bay and Megan was crew I thought I’d test her as she was at the front of the boat and I knew the throttle just stayed on as it was manually operated , so I slipped out the back at full speed , and it took her a little while to notice that I was gone and she was on her own and to come and rescue me , but that’s all in a days training ,
So even if I went to the club today I can’t technically dive the irb for the reason is that Mark Scott had back then began to push the Royal Life Saving Society to make an irb award like a licence to standardise everyone’s training to a point of gaining a qualification for the use of an irb,
He put in countless hours of work and time with endless phone calls and meetings to get the system into place but I have not done it yet as I had left the club by then,
He is the chief examiner for the award for Victoria at least , maybe Australia I’m not sure ,
Marks father George at some point retired from the clubs presidency and Mark was unanimously voted in as the clubs president and rock ,
He is the glue that holds the club together for both the members and the public ,
So this club has undertaken so many rescues over the years a few I have been personally involved in , and resuscitations on the beach , fixed countless cuts and abrasions , stings and sunburn , provide a kiosk for the public, taught yourself kids to swim , teach nipper classes to younger kids ,
Competed at carnivals in Melbourne with senior and junior members , awarded members with trophies at presentation nights and generally its one big family .
Now there is a bit of a problem which is something so important to a club like this ,
a few years ago there was a massive overnight amount of rain that left a path of destruction at Cape Patterson and the water had run down the track to the upper car park and overflowed onto the side of the hall building cutting the handmade bricks away and through in places ,
I met Mark at the hall the next morning and we inspected and discussed the damage and would have to wait for an engineer and wait for the insurance report to come ,
Unfortunately to our dismay it was condemned ,
I had a chance to call into the club a a year ago and I was disappointed to find it was still the temporary hall ,
I sat down with Mark and we disgusted the problem.
The hall is fully funded and paid for ,
There is a personality clash between Mark and a Bass Coast Shire officer ,
They can not make any progress with the construction of the hall that they desperately need for this upcoming season .
I would like to see common sense prevail here and the shire send out a new officer to work in conjunction with Mark to achieve the outcome required.
The club has its 65 th club anniversary conning uo in December I believe and both living members and families with ones that are no longer with us , would like to donate our championship medals to the club to proudly display the clubs proud history from a club that was built for you and the public by champions ,
I have one and my dad has five I think and my sisters also have some.
So In my dreams I’d like to go to the celebration in a brand new hall with that medal display for everyone to admire at the sixty fifth celebration of past and present champions
The club deserves it and a bit of respect
Cheers
Curlyg xxx