History

CAPE PATERSON SURF LIFE SAVING CLUB - formed 1965

Cape Paterson Surf Life Saving Club has a proud and successful history. It has provided a high standard of service to its local community for more than three decades. Its success has occurred not only in maintaining a safe beach but also in State Patrol Competitions and at Surf Carnivals at the District, State and National levels.

All Surf Life Saving Clubs exist as a result of the effort of their members but as a small club of often only 20 active members, or less, certain individuals and families have been able to have a huge influence on the Club, its continued existence and remarkable record are testimony to their dedication and ability.

Cape Paterson faces south into Bass Strait and is the first major promontory as one heads east around the Victorian coast from Western Port Bay. Today Cape Paterson is a thriving and popular holiday area which lies 8kms from the nearest town of Wonthaggi and about 120kms southeast of Melbourne. In 1960 the small hamlet of Cape Paterson already had one Life Saving Club at its “Bay Beach” the Wonthaggi RLSC. The impetus for a new club was provided by the growing interest in surfing combined with the growing population and the necessary catalyst occurred with the arrival of Clinton Sheills (an ex-Torquay SLSC Club Captain and the then Bass District Supervisor) as a local teacher. A meeting was convened in the RSLC rooms at which it was decided to establish a Surf Life Saving Club at the surf beach a mere kilometer around the coast at the point of the promontory.

Cape Paterson Surf Life Saving Club was born on 22nd March 1960 and became affiliated with SLSA on 20th April 1960. Wally Purvis was elected the first President, Ron Gilmour the first Club Captain, Les Legg the first Boat Captain and Allan Birt to the committee. At the beginning of the 1960/61 season the club had five active members and its first clubhouse built (a 3 metre by 10 metre fibro shed on the site of the present day boatshed).

Cape Paterson SLSC has been involved in competition since its inception. It purchased its first surf boat (clinker) from the Lorne SLSC in 1961, renaming it the Caltex Gippsland after its chief sponsor. It hosted its first Surf Carnival on the 7th January 1962. The Junior Boat Crew won the club’s first team pennant in 1967 and they gained third placing at the Victorian Titles the same year. This initial success was followed up by a 2nd and 3rd placing by Boat Crews at the Victorian Titles the following year. Cape Paterson won the Peter Nixon Trophy for the Gippsland Club with the most points at carnivals both in the 1967/8 and 1968/9 seasons. Cape Paterson’s strength and commitment were recognized by awarding it the Victorian Titles which it hosted in February 1969. Since these early days the club has continued to send representatives to carnivals all over the state from Portland to Lakes Entrance. Cape Paterson has also won District Pennants, contributed to District teams and attended State and National Titles on a regular basis.

Cape Paterson members have displayed their mettle not only at carnivals but through the quality of service they have provided on the beach to their local community. The diligence of the patrols has meant that there has never been a fatality at Cape Paterson Surf Beach. In the mid 1960’s and again in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s the club consistently finished in the top group both in the District and State Patrol Competitions. As well as regular patrols the club has organized a Junior Surf Life Saving (Nippers) Program for 7-14 year olds for much of its history and has introduced many young people to the skills and enjoyment of the surf.

Women have played a large and crucial role in the history of the club. In the early formative years a strong and active Ladies Auxillary provided invaluable support in raising funds to purchase surf boats and other necessary equipment as well as catering for numerous functions. Since then the tradition has continued and expanded, in 1985 the women initiated the Annual Easter Paddy’s Market Day, which has grown to be not only an outstanding financial success but a highly anticipated even in the Cape Paterson community calendar. Women today have a much broader role in the club than they did in those early years. In 1980 Cape Paterson was one of the first clubs in Victoria to produce an all female Bronze Medallion Squad (two of whom are still members in 1995). Over the years women have served in nearly every office in the Club including on the Committee and in Active roles and without their contributions and support the club would have been much poorer in many ways.

Cape Paterson Surf Life Saving Club’s history has not been all smooth sailing and has experiences both highs and lows. Some of the more turbulent moments have included the ongoing rivalry with Wonthaggi RLSC (although without their initial support and generosity it would have been difficult for the club to have been created), difficulties over lack of funds and numbers. Peter McGenniss played a key role in the evolution of the club in the early 1960’s when he helped broaden the involvement of holiday visitors to Cape Paterson in the club and since that time the club has included both locals and Melbourne based people on its committee and in its active ranks. Between 1965-69 difficulties over the building of a new two storey clubhouse on the cliffs above the beach with Local Authorities, Government Departments and State Centre caused much regrettable frustration, friction and disillusionment between members and it was not until the mid 1970’s that the new clubhouse was substantially finished.

Due to the clubs small size certain individuals and families have had a huge influence on the Club, its continued existence and remarkable record are testimony to their dedication and ability. In 1964 Ron Gilmour and Les Smith (the second President) were elected the club’s first life members, in 1973 Club stalwart Norm Legge was added to the roll and in the interveneing years there have been seven more additions. A medal was created in Norm Legge’s honour is the club’s most prestigious award, awarded only when appropriate, it is for exceptional service in any one season. Albert Abraham, Frank Harvey and Jim McBain saw the club through the traumas of the 1970’s as Presidents and that Cape Paterson Surf Life Saving Club survived its testimony to these leaders and their supporters integrity and determination. John and Yvonne Cantwell who had become prominent in the administration in this period, took Cape Paterson in the 1980’s and during John’s long term as President the Club was incorporated in to modern business practices. In 1986 Arthur Phillips was elected as Club President and under his decade of leadership the club has continued to keep pace with the continuing demands of changing technology and provide an outstanding service to all those who use Cape Paterson Surf Beach.

Today Cape Paterson Surf Life Saving Club looks to the future confidently. It remains a family orientated club with the Harvey, Legg, Cantwell, Donohue, Abraham, Fitzgerald, Rogers, Prendergast and Phillips families prominent in its history, and with some third generation members now in its ranks, it is poised to continue to carry out its duties to the community in making the beaches safer for all.

HISTORY - Written December 1995, Author Arthur Phillips (President 1986/87 – 1995/96)

The Cape Paterson Life Saving Club was formed at a public meeting in the Wonthaggi RSL Clubrooms on 22 March 1960 and became affiliated with SLSA on 20 April 1960.

There was, and still is, a Royal Life Saving Club (Wonthaggi) about a kilometer from the first surf beach, and as a real estate firm was developing the area, a road was form to the surf beach.

Clinton Shiells, an ex Torquay club captain and who was the Bass District Supervisor at the time, had taken a teaching position in Wonthaggi and realized a surf life saving club should be formed at the surf beach. He persuaded some senior members of the Wonthaggi Royal Life Saving Club, notably Messrs. Ron Gilmour, Less Legg, Allan Birt to consider forming a Surf Life Saving Club – a move not completely popular with the Royal Club due to the possibility of losing members but, after a meeting on the sand dunes, led to the inaugural meeting at the RSL

Mr Wally Purvis, of the well known Gippsland building firm, was elected the first President, Ron Gilmour the first Club Captain, Les Legg the first Boat Captain and Allan Birt to the Committee. Les was also the first Club Captain.

The first clubhouse, a 3 metre by 10 metre fibro shed, was built near the site of the present boat-shed by the members in readiness for 1960/61 season.

The season began with 5 active members and conducted its first carnival on 7 January 1962.

In 1961 Cape Paterson, due to the generosity Caltex (Australia) Pty Ltd, purchased its first surfboat (clinker) from the Lorne SLSC renamed it the Caltex Gippsland. Unfortunately is was wrecked in 1964. The bow was mounted and in snow fastened to the clubhouse wall as a monument to Caltex and that historic craft.

In the early years office bearers and members were restricted to local (Wonthaggi) area. This began to cause communication problems with State Centre and also limited membership. Some potential members were attracted to the board riding fraternity, also operating and administration problems became evident as Melbourne people who had holiday homes and joined the club could not hold office or participate in a lot of club activated due to committee meetings being held mid week in Wonthaggi.

In 1963 Peter McGenniss, a former member of Point Leo, joined Cape Paterson and became assistant Gear Steward. Having a strong personality, Peter persuaded the club to change their committee meetings to Sundays on the beach. This enable non-office bearers to see how the club operated.

The next year Peter became Secretary and set about training and teaching new office bearers surf life administration techniques. He also recruited and trained active members – resulting in 50/50 percentage of local and Melbourne members.

In 1964 Ron Gilmour and Les Smith (second President) were elected the club’s first life members.

Plans for a two-storey club house were submitted in 1965, but due to wrangles with Local Authorities and Government Departments (surveys etc) approval was delayed for two years. A further years delay was caused by possible ramifications of State Centre being formed into a Company. Finally, in November 1968, the club was granted to build, and the present Clubhouse was officially opened by the Mayor of Wonthaggi at the Victorian Titles head at Cape Paterson on 9 February 1969.

This long delay in receiving building approval resulted in major problems for the club: substantial lowering of members’ morale, severe problems in raising sufficient finance to commence building, alterations to plans and dissension among club members, leading to the resignation and retirement of several experienced and prominent personnel. This severely retarded the progress of the club and hindered the ability to recruit members and raise finance to complete the clubhouse throughout the early and middle seventies.

Cape Paterson’s local members provided the competitive spirit in the sixties. Extremely fit and competent in the toughest conditions in surf boat races, the club became very boat orientated with a new heavy unsuitable self-draining boat and an older craft for training, it began to compete regularly.

The junior boat crew won the club’s first team pennant in 1967, beating Victoria’s top crews in choppy and heavy surf. Although the self-draining boat was wrecked shortly afterwards, hampering training, they still gained third place at the Victorian Titles. In 1968 at Jan Juc in big surf, the Cape B and C crews came second and third.

Cape Paterson won the Peter Nixon Trophy for the Gippsland club winning the most points at carnivals in 1967/68. The following season the club again won the Peter Nixon Trophy. In these seasons Cape Paterson finished fourth and third in the State Centre Patrol Competition illustrating that the club was both competitive at carnivals and proficient on the beach.

At this time Club Captain Rod Rogers initiated a handicapped monthly competition, later modified to an iron-man type competition. This proved a great success in improving the fitness, training and maintaining the interest, and improving the number of members skillful handling of a surf boat.

During these formative years a strong and active ladies auxiliary provided invaluable support in raising funds to purchase surf boats and other necessary lifesaving equipment, as well as catering for various functions.

Without the cooperation and assistance of the Wonthaggi Royal Life Saving Club it would have been much more difficult to form and develop the Cape Paterson Surf Life Saving Club.

Albert Abraham, who had succeeded Les Smith as President, led Cape Paterson into the seventies and, as with Frank Harvey and Jim McBain in their terms as President, experienced a severe shortage of funds to complete the building. It was not until the mid seventies that their combined efforts and with assistance and advice from the Victorian State Centre, saw the first floor flooring installed, enabling tenders for that floors interior walls and ceilings to be called for. Coldon Homes carried out this work and were most considerate in settlement of their account.

Membership, active in particular, began to pick up late in the decade after a few lack lustre years. The most turbulent period in the club’s history and that Cape Paterson Surf Life Saving Club survived is testimony to these leaders and their supporters’ integrity and determination.

Club stalwart Norm Legge was elected a life member in 1973 and years later, after his death, a medal was decided upon, in his honour, to be awarded at the club committee’s discretion, to any club member who performed exceptional service in any one season, but not necessarily awarded each year. This should become a most prestigious award.

John and Yvonne Cantwell, who had become prominent in the club’s administration in this period took Cape Paterson in to the eighties and during John’s term as president the club was incorporated in common with modern business practices. In 1980 the first three female lifesavers achieved their Bronze Medallions in the club – two of whom are still members in 1995. Since then women have served in every office, except those of president and club captain and it is hard to visualize where the club would be today without their sterling efforts. In 1985 several of the ladies began their annual Easter Paddy’s Market day. This has since proven to be a resounding financial success as well as becoming an anticipated event in the Cape Paterson community calendar.

Steady progress over the last twelve years has enabled Cape Paterson to keep up with changing technology in communication and surf rescue equipment. As in other surf clubs retention of members is the biggest potential problem, and it is working to overcome this by promoting the Nipper and Cadet areas while continuing to advance its senior members’ knowledge and skills.

Up to 1996 Cape Paterson Surf Life Saving Club has 10 life members, has performed rescues and treated first-aid cases.

A family orientated club with the Harvey, Legg, Cantwell, Donohue, Abraham, Fitzgeral, Rogers, Prendergast and Phillips families prominent in its history and with some third generation members now in its ranks, Cape Paterson is poised to continue to carry out its duties to the community in making the beaches safer and approaches the future confidently.

HISTORY - Date written and Author unknown

The Cape Paterson Surf Life Saving Club was formed at a public meeting in Wonthaggi on the 22nd of March 1960 and became affiliated with the SLSA on the 20th April, 1960.

There was, and still is a Royal Life Saving Club at Wonthaggi about half a mile from the surf beach which at the time was practically inaccessible. But an estate firm, which was developing the area put an access road though to the surf beach. The District Supervisor for the Bass District, Clinton Shiells, and ex-Torquay club captain took up a teaching position in Wonthaggi about this time and he could not understand why there was not a surf life saving club at the Cape Paterson beach.

The beach had started to become very popular with tourists because it was not only picturesque but it was one of the few safe surf beaches in Gippsland with a consistent wave. At the tip of the Cape a large reef extends for about half a mile out to sea and creates a huge bombora given large seas and on most occasions gives a nice wave. This provides a playground for the more daring surfers. Consequently, the Cape became the main beach for south western Gippsland and being only 87 miles from Melbourne on good road it became the venue for many day trippers.

Clinton contacted the senior male members of the Wonthaggi Royal Ssurf Life Saving Club and persuaded some of them to consider forming a Surf Life Saving Club. This was not popular with the Wonthaggi Life Saving Club because of the possibility of losing members. However, Messrs Ron Gilmour, Les Legge and others realized that the surf beach was becoming and would eventually be the most popular swimming area and they, under the guidance of Clinton Shiells, set about forming the club. Ron Gilmour became the first Club Captain.

The first clubhouse was a 10 x 30 fibro shed built by the members in readiness for this first patrolling season which was 1960/61. The first bronze squad from the Cape Paterson SLSC went through on the 7th January 1961. Its first boat was an old clinker purchased from Lorne in February 1961, the bow of which has since been mounted by Caltex because it was the first boat donated to the surf movement in Victoria. The club conducted its first carnival on 7th January 1962.

In early days the club confined its membership to the Wonthaggi area but this proved inefficient because of lack of communication with State Centre, and it also restricted the number of members. Owing to a lack of support after the establishment of the club it began to have operating and administrative problems. Also the lure of good surf in the surrounding area attracted some members in the board riding fraternity.

Eventually, Melbourne guys who had homes on the estate joined the club but were prevented from holding any office or participating in many club activities because committee meetings were held during the week in Wonthaggi.

Thus the club prevented any valuable members outside Wonthaggi from rendering service. Then in 1963, Peter McGenniss formerly a member of the Pt Leo club joined Cape Paterson and became assistant gear steward. He persuaded them to change committee meetings to Sunday mornings at the beach and this enabled some of the non-active office bearers a chance to see how the club operated. This laid the foundations of an upward trend in the Club. The following season Peter took on the position of Secretary and Chief Secretary and set about teaching the new office bearers surf life saving administration. He also conducted a personal recruiting campaign and trained the new members himself. With the influx of much new blood the club began to grow stronger both actively and administratively. The club now has a 50-50 membership of local and Melbourne members.

The local members have always provided the competitive backbone of the Cape Paterson SLSC. They are mostly extremely fit men and seem to revel in the toughest conditions. With the purchase of a new boat (unfortunately the heavy self-draining type which was unsuitable for competition) and later on another older craft for training, the club became very boat orientated and began to compete regularly in carnivals. In 1967, the club won its first team pennant when its Junior boat crew won by 50 yards from Victoria’s top crews in a choppy and unassisting surf.

Unfortunately about this time the self-drainer was wrecked, leaving only one old craft which hampered training because the crews were split between Wonthaggi and Melbourne. However they still managed to gain third place at the Victorian Championships. A notable feature of Cape Paterson crews is that they always do better in heavy surf. At Jan Juc in 1968 in the biggest surf at a Victorian Carnival for many years the Cape ‘B’ and ‘C’ crews gained 2nd and 3rd places respectively against more highly trained crews in better boats. The season 1967/68 and 1968/69 showed that Cape Paterson also picked up points when a big surf was running. This could be attributed to the practice our boys get cracking the bombora.

In 1967/68 Cape Paterson won the Peter Nixon Trophy (Peter Nixon – M.H.R for Gippsland) for the club in the Gippsland area winning the most carnival points. It also came fourth in the Victorian State Centre Patrol competition. The following season, 1968/69 the club again won the Peter Nixon Trophy and came third in the State Centre Patrol Competition which illustrates how this club is becoming stronger in both competition and patrol efficiency.

The club submitted plans for a new two storey clubhouse in 1965, but due to a lot of red tape and wrangling with local authorities and Government Departments the progress of the plans were held up for two years. They were then held up another 12 months because of the ramifications of State Centre being formed into a Company. Eventually in November 1968, the club was granted its approval to build the clubhouse was officially opened at the Victorian Titles held at Cape Paterson on the 9th February 1969. The long delay of making application for and receiving approval to build the clubhouse caused and administrative upheaval and lowered the morale of many members. All of which seriously hindered the progress of the Cape Paterson Surf Life Saving Club.

To raise the standard of fitness and to keep the interest of members, especially non-competitors, the club captain, Rod Rogers introduced a handicapped monthly medal competition in 1967/68. The following season this was modified to an iron-man type competition which proved to be very successful. It not only keep members fit but increased the number of members who could skillfully handle a surf board.

Up to 1968/69, 30 rescues have been performed by this club and 200 first aid cases have been treated. From only 5 active and 4 non-active members in 1960, Cape Paterson SLSC had increased it membership to 56 active and 58 non-active members in 1969. With the advent of the new clubhouse and a number of moderate success behind it, Cape Paterson SLSC should go on to become a force in the surf movement in Victoria.