 A young Jim Waite
performed the first rescue that season. Early one morning as he walked around the rocks,
he spotted a man in difficulty at ‘The Alley’. He raced down to the reel at the
water’s edge, jumped into the belt, and swam out to save the man. It was the first of
24 surf rescues at North Cronulla that year.
North Cronulla Surf Life Saving Club’s first clubhouse, a small weatherboard
building on the beach at the end of the Kingsway, opened in 1926. The first bronze squad
went into training, learning surf rescue and resuscitation techniques.
Memberships, competitors and finding dwindled during the Depression. Carnivals were
poorly attended in those years, and in 1931 at the Bronte surf carnival, no North Cronulla
competitors were there for the junior surf race. North Cronulla member John McTigue
watched from the beach as the race started and the juniors made their way out past the
break. Within moments, the boys were swept out past the bouys and McTigue feared that
tragedy was imminent. He dived into a rip and made his way out to comfort the boys before
they were rescued and the carnival called off. For his actions that day, McTigue was
awarded the Certificate of Merit from Surf Life Saving Australia – the first award of
its kind presented to a North Cronulla member.
Wave action forced club members to move the clubhouse from the beach into Dunningham
Park in 1932. The rock pools between Cronulla and North Cronulla were built and opened the
same year.
In 1933, 19 year old club member Douglas ‘Texas’ Lechleitner was on patrol
with friend Eddie Bennett during a south easterly gale when they heard that eight men in a
boat had been wrecked on a treacherous section of the reef at Boat Harbour. Lechleitner
and Bennett loaded some rescue equipment onto a buggy and raced to the scene. Lechleitner
dived in and brought in one of the men, who later recovered. He then brought in another
man, who was unable to be revived. Two boatmen made it to shore unassisted, but no others
survived. Lechleitner was awarded the Bronze Medal of the Surf Life Saving Association of
Australia, a Silver Medal and Certificate of Merit of the Royal Shipwreck and Humane
Society of NSW.
A new North Cronulla clubhouse – a three storey cement rendered building –
was said to be the finest in Australia when it opened in 1937.
The Army’s beach fortifications during World War II affected the seawall
foundations, and after heavy seas in 1946, the clubhouse had to be demolished.
In 1950, North Cronulla lost one of its greatest swimming champions. Club Captain Major
James ‘Jim’ Peryman was attempting to rescue a 16 year old woman from the surf
when he was pulled under by the weight of seaweed on his rescue line. The woman was pulled
the safety by another club member. Peryman was reeled to shore, but could not be revived.
A new clubhouse opened later that year. A pool later added to the surf club complex was
named after Peryman.
Club members have been very competitive in all surf life saving disciplines, and in
1981 and 1995 North Cronulla won the title of World Surf Life Saving Champions.
North Cronulla has produced a long list of champions. Among them are Steve Warren, Bob
Johnson and Kate Krywulycz.
The tradition of surf life saving has continues at North Cronulla, with approximately
500 senior and 250 junior members. In 75 years, North Cronulla members have conducted more
than 11,000 rescues.
Source: A Shade of Blue, A Touch of Gold: A fifty year history of North Cronulla Surf
Life Saving Club by Ted Larsen and Theo Belbin.
|
