A gathering of bits and pieces, mainly from the collections of Barry Maloney and Max Gamlin.

Do you have any that would be of interest to us?

The first picture loads very slowly for some reason. Please be patient and think nice thoughts.

Cloth banner made by 'Bull' Galpin.  The bottom 'Attended by' section reads -

President Mel Cameron,  Club Captain Reg Hartshorne,  Chief Instructor Max Gamlin

Vice Captain Graeme Hallendale,  Assistant Chief Instructor R Warhurst,  Boat Captain D Conlin

T Sale,  K Baker,  D Presgrave,  B Presgrave,  N Prime,  R Kidney,  D Bradshaw

R Hammer,  B Fitch,  D Ireland,  C Ireland,  P Craig,  F Green,  B Hartshorne,  L Bradley

D Galpin,  Members Women's Auxiliary,  Club Delegates,  Mr and Mrs Barrington,

Members of the Committee.

The very first carnival held at West Beach. This was another clear sign that the club was seen as having 'come of age', not only by the club members but also by Surf Lifesaving's administrators.

 A Peter Craig initiative, the Southern Surfriders kept West Beach lifesavers together while other clubs were losing members to almost full-time surfing.

A skunk jacket patch from the Merewether Championships.

THAT letter which 'invited' you to come and watch the fat hit the fan!

It signalled the start of many changes.

Pages from the Second Annual Report, 1957-58 showing the membership of 18 Seniors, 20 Juniors, 6 Cadets and 11 Associates. From this membership 32 awards were gained in the season, 76% and, at the time, a record in the annals of the SLSA.

In the following season, just the third for the club, there were 60 active members and the club finished third overall in the State Championships, a result that brought letters of accolade from other clubs. Success came with first places in the Junior R & R, the Junior Boat, the Cadet Beach Relay and the highly coveted March Past as well as in individual events.

West Beach Club Champions for this third season were Lionel Bradley, Peter Craig and Barry Bishop although Moose Kidney and wife Rhonda probably thought their new son was top of the lot.

An early club letterhead - and a pretty blunt message.

A note you probably didn't want to receive.

Another note you didn't want. (Why does Barry Malone have such a large collection of these?)

Remember the glory in '59?

Only 5 titles in '60.  Is this what caused the letters above?

Do you remember the Henley and Grange Carnivals?

They were run around Christmas time and started with a procession from the Grange Hotel, along Seaview Road to the Henley South Hotel then turned right and went along the Esplanade to finish in the Henley Square. There were all sots of floats in the procession, generally from businesses in the area but also some from the state's larger companies. Spectators, at times maybe ten or a dozen deep, lined the routes.

Cec Ireland, Wayne Mitchell and Bill Fitch by the Grange hotel at the start of the Carnival procession, probably December 1956.

A time just made for collecting by the un-funded clubs along the coast.

In the square there were food stalls, sideshows, musical entertainments and variety acts. A crowd and media favourite was the pole sitting contest in which volunteer idiots from all sorts of clubs and all walks of life lived for as long as possible at the top of wooden poles standing along the edge of the beach stretching on either side of the jetty.

The whole festival lasted for a week or maybe ten days.

Of course West Beach was in it with a March Past team and the boat towed by Cec Ireland. Lots of members ran along the route, working each side of the road for donations. When a tin or other receptacle was too full and heavy to carry the contents were tipped into the boat and the collector took off again. The club raised hundreds of pounds in thus way and a few members lost pounds in sweat although a trip through the bar of any or all of the hotels along the way always guaranteed a drink on the house to stave off dehydration.

Background notes to the  SECOND Annual Report 1957/58

West Beach Surf Lifesaving Club INC

   The AGM was held on the 15 September 1957 at the Henley 14’ Sailing Club and Frank E Porter was re-elected as Club Captain but shortly afterwards resigned as he was concentrating on building a home for his wife Jill and himself.

   Bill Fitch was elected Captain ahead of Alex Mosey and immediately set about truly organising the Club for the first time and each Club Member was interviewed by the Chief Instructor (Max Gamlin) and the Captain when all grievances were sorted out and competition program was organised for the first time in a proper manner.

   The first competition win for the Club was at a Henley Night Carnival when we won some of the beach events and the novelty events – the details were not recorded.  Whilst we competed in the beach events and some of the swimming events throughout the year, we did not have any successes in the main carnivals.

   In this season, the third Bronze team for the Club was examined at Grange and it comprised Robin Kidney, Stuart Ridland, Peter Craig, Ashley Radcliffe, Brian Hartshorne and Barry Maloney with the last two failing the difficult swim leg.  Shortly afterwards the fourth Bronze team fronted up at Glenelg and comprised Brian Hartshorne, Lionel Bradley, Bill van Bronswijk and this time Lionel Bradley and Barry Maloney failed the swim event again because of the incoming tide increasing in strength and disadvantaging the final swimmers.

   Then on the 11 January 1958, candidates in what was the fifth Bronze team ever for the Club were examined at Seacliff and all five members, Dan Kamenjaren, Barry Maloney, Lionel Bradley, Brian Jones and Bill van Bronswijk, passed.  On the same day and on the same beach, our second ever Qualification team was examined and all passed. They were Bill Hoyle, Geoff Richter, Peter Williams, Trevor Shegog, Geoff Ellis, Wayne Mitchell, Ian Hunter and John Giles. 

   Towards the end of the competitive season, the clubs sixth bronze team was examined at Port Noarlunga and the members passing included Graham Hallendale, Fred Danielson and Ken Baker. During this same season, Geoff Ellis and Geoff Everett passed their Resuscitation Certificates.

   All of the above created a South Australian record and some say an Australian record, for the number of awards gained by a Club in one year – 31 awards.

   Our first really competitive year was our second year in 1957/58 and consisted a lot of endeavour but not a lot of results. The State Championships at Surfers Beach on 2 February 1958 followed the organisational work done by Bill Fitch as Captain and a structured approach was made at winning points although we did not get any.

   In the State Titles our first ever Junior R & R team competed and comprised David Presgrave, Peter Craig, Richard Hammer, Brian Hartshorne, Barry Maloney and Ashley Ratcliffe. There were five teams with very large seas. Barry Maloney drew the patient swim and got to the cans third. Peter Craig got the belt swim but somehow the line was fouled and our team was disqualified. 

   On the same day our first ever Senior R & R competed and appeared to be the winner as Dan Kamenjaren in the belt was the only one to finish the swim.  This team comprised Barry Presgrave as the patient swimmer, Dan as the belt swimmer with the beach team being Robin Kidney, Bill Fitch, Stuart Ridland and Frank Porter.  Because of the big seas they cancelled the event with the view to having it the next week and there was a cynical view that because Henley had not won it the first week they thought they would have it the second week so they could take out the title which they did.

   We could not compete in the boat events as we had only just ordered a boat and did not have one at this stage.

   This boat was the first boat built in Sydney by Phillips and it arrived in a Holden’s transport truck at West Beach on the 14 April 1958 only two days after the third extension had been put on the Club shed.  In the previous season the shed had gone from being 12’ wide (about 4 metres) and 18’ deep (about 6 metres) by having the back wall taken out and the sides and roof extended making it 12’ wide and 36’ deep (about 11 metres). The second extension for the boat added another further 10’ of width on the beach side – leaving a complex then of 22’ in width and 36’ in depth. 

   Quite a few of the club members took a day off from work or from school to greet their prized possession and it arrived being towed by Cecil Ireland, the club Gear Steward, with his Peugeot wagon on a boat trailer borrowed from Glenelg. It was taken down to the Club shed and locked up.  Later that afternoon after school and work, the boat was first put in the water and rowed by a team of Dennis Conlon, Max Gamlin, Bill Fitch, Cecile Ireland with Len Tucker of the Henley Club supervising.

   On the nights following, Dennis Conlon who was then boat captain tried out various members for what was to be the launching crew and one night, practicing a ‘trail oars – come back!!’, we rolled the boat right over about a mile off shore.  The team in the boat at the time included Dennis Conlon, Dean Bradshaw, David Ireland, Barry Maloney and Reg Hartshorne and we had Bill Fitch sitting up the front in his school teacher clothes. When the boat went over he was holding his hand above water trying to keep his watch from getting drowned. 

   This crew (without Bill Fitch as the figure head), went on to be the launching crew for the boat named W Maloney because of Bill Maloney’s help in raising £250 from film nights at his nearby caravan park. Other sponsorship came from The News newspaper which gained them secondary  naming rights.

   The launching celebrations carried on late into the evening with the officials and some senior members going to a fancy cocktail party at the West Beach home of club supporters Jack and Shirley Weinert. The rest of the members shared a keg in the Club shed.

   During this year there were a number of rescues, the first when Bill Fitch resuscitated a young boy on the beach at Henley South and this lad named Terrence Byrnes.  This was before Christmas in 1957.

   On the long weekend on the 8 February 1958, Barry Maloney who was on patrol rescued a 13 year old boy who had capsized a small boat 400 metres off-shore. The rescue was done with a long surfboard and then a swim crew with a belt went out and retrieved the boat.  We were very upset when the father of the boy would not give his name or his details as this information was required to fill in our patrol report.

   Although the actual date is unknown, the lookout tower was erected before the boat launching. Jack Hartshorne, who had taken his long service, leave worked with Cecil Ireland and used what I believe was a Nicholls Crane to stand the tower up on the concrete slab.  Bill Fitch was the first person to go up on the tower with Cecil Ireland following him, swaying the tower viciously to prove that it would not fall down.

   In the winter of 1958, on the 7 June, the Club had its second ever presentation night and the Women’s Auxiliary presented the Club with a new march past pennant.

   The second ever annual cabaret was held in July and was a great success and a mannequin parade organised by Shirley Weinert was held in September 1957 in the Henley Town Hall. A fun and games evening featuring  'Crown and Anchor' and 'Unders and Overs' raised money for the club and was held locally at the home of Gordon Romain who was the club fitness coach.  Also during this year we had our first water polo teams and the main participants were Barry and David Presgrave, David Ireland, Richard Hammer, Barry Maloney, Bill Fitch, John Kamprod and others. 

  Just before the end of the competitive season, Bill Fitch resigned as Captain ending a short but very effective term as his teaching activities took him to Ceduna.

                                                                    BFM   17/10/05