If you head north along the stunning beaches of the Kingsborough coast in southern Tasmania, you are bound to hit the town of Kingston. It’s one of the more central points on this 300km long beach, and the home to about 1,990 people.
Though small in size, Kingston plays a big role in coast-safety for a good chunk of southern Tassie. The Kingston Beach Surf Life Saving Club (KBSLSC) is the most accessible lifesaving club in the south, and therefore part of the Surf Life Saving Tasmania’s emergency response services. The Club provides equipment and volunteer personnel that are on-call 24/7, ready to respond to emergency situations as tasked by TasPol.
The KBSLSC is community-run and supported by a group of volunteers – passionate locals between the ages of 15 to 70 – who all take their job of beach-safety very seriously. Last year, the Club wanted to increase their preparedness for, and ability to respond to and recover from, emergency flood and bushfire events. Having heard of the FRRR Strengthening Rural Communities grant program, they decided to give it a go, and wrote a great application explaining why they needed new equipment, and how it would benefit their community. We were impressed by their commitment to increasing disaster preparedness and resilience and, needless to say, the application was approved!
The $3,382 grant, generously funded by Australia Post, allowed them to purchase an inflatable rescue boat training dummy, Bluetooth ICOM waterproof radios and stereo headsets – exactly what they needed to conduct their new water rescue and evacuation training.
With this new equipment on hand, the members were excited about their new state-of-the-art gear and the ability to train for real life rescue scenarios. “We are proud of our members using the equipment often and when needed,” the Club said in their assessment. They also told us the ‘dummy’, in particular, was an instrumental piece of equipment for the patrolling members, as it made the training more realistic and effective.
They were all very pleased to have made the community an even safer place in the event of natural disasters. “We just wish we had more surf at our beach!” an SLSC staff member said.
