MAROOCHYDORE SLSC CENTENARY HISTORY SERIES

By Life Governor Ralph Devlin AM QC, Club Historian

On 1 January 1916, in a tent provided by the Salvation Army at Cotton Tree, the Maroochydore Branch of the Royal Life Saving Society was formed. The formation of our Club was in response to constant loss of life at Maroochy Heads since at least the turn of the new Century. Maroochy Heads, or Cotton Tree, would attract up to 2000 campers every Christmas and Easter Season.

Lifesaving Squads from Bli Bli and Maroochydore first patrolled our beach on 2 January 1916. Five rescues were performed that day.

Maroochydore Surf Life Saving Club joined the Surf Life Saving Association in January 1931, at the very height of its success in patrolling and in Royal competition. Maroochydore SLSC was crowned Champion Club at the inaugural Queensland Surf Life Saving Championships at Coolangatta in January 1932.

Today Maroochydore is ranked among the most respected and recognised Surf Clubs both Nationally and Internationally, having won the World Club Title in 2000 and 2002. The Club has annexed 38 World Surf Life Saving Championships, have 29 World Champions, and over 200 Australian Championships Gold Medalists.

Maroochydore’s motto in its second century is: “Loyalty, Guts and Glory”.

If you want to purchase a piece of club history we have the limited edition 100th Centenary History 3 volume box sets are for sale at the Club reception desk.

For more Maroochydore centenary history keep reading our highlight series.

SERIES #1
THE CLUB COLOURS OF MAROOCHYDORE LIFE SAVING & SWIMMING CLUB
Established 1916. Our Club was formed at a meeting held under a canvas tent at the Cotton Tree Camping Ground on 1 January 1916. The Anzac troops had just been successfully evacuated from Suvla Bay at the end of the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915. Continue Reading.

SERIES #2
THE GREAT WAR 1914-18: FROM LIFESAVERS TO AUSSIE DIGGERS
BY 28 DECEMBER 1915, the birth of Maroochydore Swimming and Lifesaving Club was only 3 days away. That day the hamlet of ‘Cotton Tree’ was about to be formed by the sale by auction of the first 80 Lots, situated along the surf beach and at right-angles along the river esplanade at the ‘Cotton Tree’. Continue Reading.

SERIES #3
THE ROARING 20’s AT MAROOCHYDORE
THE POST-WAR RECOVERY at Maroochydore Lifesaving and Swimming Club started as a trickle and ended as a flood. As 1919 drew wearily to a close, Australia was counting the cost of its 5-year involvement in the Great War of 1914-18; our galant Diggers were still returning to their Homeland in the southern winter of 1919. Continue Reading.

SERIES #4
THE 1930s AT MAROOCHYDORE
1930s LIFE ON THE NORTH COAST was idyllic for the young men who loved the sea. Maroochydore Surf Life Saving Club’s first decade under the banner of Surf Lifesaving, rather than under the banner of ‘Royal’ Life Saving, had been a reasonably happy hunting ground. Continue Reading.