Welcome to the
Surf Life Saving Illawarra Newsletter
Welcome to another Surf Life Saving Illawarra newsletter. Autumn is now upon us and although Summer may be over, our volunteer lifesavers are still busy patrolling our beaches, alongside Wollongong City Council Lifeguards, which they will continue to do until the 27th of April.
Across the Summer months, our volunteer lifesavers in the Illawarra have performed a total of 51 rescues, 92 First Aid treatments and 3535 preventative actions. A mammoth effort, thank you to our lifesavers for your efforts in continuing to keep us safe at our beaches.
Over the last month, we have held our annual Surf Life Saving Illawarra Branch Championships at Thirroul SLSC and announced our two Junior Lifesavers of the Year (JLOTY) who will go on to represent our branch at the SLSNSW JLOTY camp. Keep reading to find out who our Illawarra 2026 JLOTYs of the year are.
This Wednesday the 4th of March is the first National Red and Yellow Day. An SLSA initiative introduced to give thanks to and celebrate our volunteer lifesavers. Patrolling members are encouraged to wear their patrol uniforms at their workplace or university, and others are encouraged to wear red and yellow. You can find out more about this initiative here, don't forget to tag our Surf Life Saving Illawarra social media pages on the day, so we can share the Red and Yellow Day love with our community!
Thank you to all our members who continue to patrol and keep our community safe. This tail end of the patrolling season often presents a challenging time, where our members have already volunteered and contributed many hours to their clubs and the wider Illawarra community. On behalf of our community, thank you for the time you give and your commitment to continue to keep our clubs running and our community safe.
Department of Primary Industries installs Shark Bite Kits at Emergency Response Beacons (ERB)'s
Our seven ERB's in the Wollongong local government area have had Shark Bite kits installed. Our ERB's and their shark bite kits are at the following locations:
- Sharky Beach, Coledale
- Austinmer Beach
- Woonona Pool
- East Corrimal
- Puckeys Beach
- Coniston Beach
- Hill 60, Port Kembla
These kits are only to be used in the event of severe bleeding and not to be used in general First Aid cases.
What is an Emergency Response Beacon (ERB)?
An Emergency Response Beacon, or ERB, is an autonomous emergency response tool that are being rolled out at identified ‘black spot’ locations across the state to assist in lifesaving activities.
The ERB uses the latest mobile technology to, when engaged by a person on the beach, communicate between the Surf Life Saving NSW State Operations Centre (SOC) and the person, allowing the SOC operator to quickly gather important information, issue instructions or provide reassurance in an emergency situation.
A camera fitted to the ERB can be remotely monitored by the SOC to provide operators with situational awareness of the incident. SLSNSW can then respond using a wide range of Rescue Services assets, including jetskis, inflatable rescue boats, volunteer callout teams from surf clubs, lifeguards, or helicopter or drone services.
Find out more about beacons and bystander rescues here.
Download Beachsafe App!
Access the latest information about every Australian beach or find a beach near you including local conditions and lifesaving services. There’re also safety advice and information about flags, signs, rips, waves and more.
Surf Life Saving recommends swimming at patrolled beaches, between the red and yellow flags.
Education Courses
Upcoming First Aid Courses
Our next first aid course will be held on Tuesday 3 March and Thursday 5 March 2026.
First Aid is open to current members above the age of 14 who are currently patrolling at their club or will be commencing patrol at their club.
Contact educationadmin@slsillawarra.com.au for more information and to book in.
2026 Surf Life Saving Illawarra Branch Championships
On Saturday the 31st of January and Sunday the 1st of February, we held our annual Branch Championships at Thirroul SLSC.
Saturday's events included competition for U8-U14 on the beach and in the water and Sunday competition involved beach and water events for U15-Masters.
A HUGE thank you to our officials, water safety, IRB Drivers, Rescue Watercraft (RWC) drivers, helpers and organiser who make these events possible! Thanks to Thirroul SLSC for hosting a great carnival.
Congratulations to Wollongong City SLSC, who was the winner of our overall pointscore with 968 points, followed by North Wollongong SLSC in 2nd with 905 points and Bulli SLSC coming third with a total of 774.
Our Age Championship Pointscore winners were North Wollongong SLSC and our Seniors and Masters pointscore winners were Wollongong City SLSC.
Thanks to Alyssa Norris from Windang SLSC who attend our Juniors event and took some great photos on the day, which can be found in our photo albums on our facebook page.
Australian Surf Rowers League (ASRL)
The 2026 ASRL Open was held at Wanda SLSC on the 12th - 15th of February.
Members from Bulli SLSC, Corrimal SLSC and Port Kembla SLSC proudly represented their clubs in competition.
Congratulations to the following teams who placed in their events:
Port Kembla 180 yrs Male Surf Boat Team, The Port Kembla Blues (Craig Hadfield, Mitchell Stewart, Brendon Choice, Duane McManus and Jack Patison) coming 3rd.
Bulli Reserve Grade Female Surf Boat, Bulli Gold (Ella Smith, Olivia Mitton, Sophie Neal, Emma Hayes, Paul Jones) taking out 2nd.
Bulli 160 yrs Female Surf Boat, Bulli Gold (Kylie Roodenrys, Brooke Dent, Vida Oakes Karla Smeaton, Shane GeLoven) claiming 1st.
Bulli 260 yrs Male Surf Boat, Bulli Gold (Christopher Mercer, Peter McLaren David Boyle, Barry Lowe, Lincoln Costello) in 3rd place.
Corrimal U17 Male Surf Boat, Corrimal Black Birds (Kai Grimsey, Finn Ardita, Bailey Jacobs, Thomas Immens, Travis Down) claiming 2nd place.
Well done to all involved.
Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of these results, if you wish for your results to be included in the newsletter, please email them to office@slsillawarra.com.au otherwise we cannot guarantee their inclusion in the newsletter.
SLSNSW State Championships
The SLNSW State Championships were held over the last two weeks at Swansea- Belmont SLSC.
We had multiple members from our Illawarra clubs compete, we look forward to hearing about your results!
Surf Life Saving Illawarra Junior Lifesavers of the Year
This year we had 8 JLOTY finalists from our 17 clubs in the Illawarra. The Junior Lifesaver of the Year Program aims to focus on recognising and rewarding our young members. Well done to our all our finalists.
Our JLOTY for 2026 were announced at our SLSI Branch Championships and they are Taj Caldwell from Bulli SLSC and Bianca Staniforth from Bulli SLSC. Congratulations to Taj and Bianca. Special mention and congratulations to Scarlett Conte from Windang SLSC who was awarded Highly Commended.
Taj and Bianca will now go on to represent Illawarra at the SLSNSW JLOTY camp in April. Two representatives from each branch in NSW attend and two overall NSW JLOTY's will be announced.
Best of luck Taj and Bianca, Illawarra are behind you!
Thank you to our special guests who attended our JLOTY presentation; Bill Wilkins from Bluescope Community Win Partners, Ms Maryanne Stuart MP, Ms Alison Byrnes MP and The Hon Paul Scully MP.
Order of Australia Medal
Congratulations to Ross Taylor OAM from Thirroul SLSC (pictured above) who was awarded an Order of Australia (OAM) medal on Australia Day for his many years' service to Surf Life Saving.
SLSA National Medals
Congratulations to the following members who received a National Medal for the many years of service to Surf Life Saving.
National Medal - First Clasp for 20 years or service; Adrian Walsh - Windang SLSC
National Medal for 15 years of service; Craig Walker - Coledale SLSC, Janet Merrick - Coledale SLSC, Jerry Ongerth - Sandon Point SLSC, Derek Morton - Fairy Meadow SLSC
SLSA 2026 Leadership College
Michael Russo from Fairy Meadow SLSC and Kayla McKenzie from Wollongong City SLSC were selected to attend the Surf Life Saving Australia 2026 National Leadership College. Members from across the country, New Zealand and Japan attended the college together where they undertook team building activities and learnt about leadership in surf lifesaving.
Well done to Mick and Kayla on being selected, we heard they thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Surf Life Saving Illawarra 24/25 Annual Report
We are pleased to advise our Surf Life Saving Illawarra 2024-25 Annual Report is now available on our website. Many thanks to all who contributed to this report, including our directors and our Club Presidents.
University of Wollongong (UOW)'s O Fest
Each year UOW host their lively O week to welcome the start of the university year. Local community groups, university clubs and 1000s of students come together. We were excited to once again host a Surf Life Saving Illawarra stall.
It was great to meet so many students and welcome them to Wollongong, chat about how to stay safe at the beach and spread the message about our 17 Illawarra surf lifesaving clubs and how to become a member. A big thank you to Jackie, our Director of Lifesaving and Ashton from Fairy Meadow SLSC who volunteered their time at our stall.
Another great part of attending these events, is meeting other community organisations and their employees/volunteers who are making a difference in our community, one of who was Isabella from Career Gateway.
Carer Gateway is a government‑funded support program designed to assist people in unpaid caring roles for a family member or loved one. This may include caring for a parent, sibling, child, partner, or other family member who has a disability, chronic or life‑limiting illness, mental health condition, substance‑use disorder, or who is frail due to age.
The support available can include practical support for in-home respite, transport services, light domestic assistance and more, or even educational supports such as driving lessons, tutoring, device purchases or funding towards a course. Support can also assist with emotional supports such as counselling, coaching, and peer events. You can find out more about the program here - https://www.benevolent.org.au/services-and-programs/support-for-carers
This is a relatively new program and so I said to Isabella that I was happy to share this with our community. If you know of someone who could benefit from this service, please get in touch through the website.
NEWSLETTERS
Does your club have any news, training dates or just anything you would like to share. Send it through to the SLSI branch office and we will put it in the newsletter.
