SURF lifesavers aren’t beating around the bush when it comes to water safety this summer.
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Students from Mount Isa, Camooweal, Doomadgee, Burketown and Cloncurry will received vital water safety lessons ahead of summer, when some of the state’s finest lifesavers hit the road as part of Surf Life Saving Queensland’s (SLSQ) annual Breaka Beach to Bush program (August 22-26).
Five simultaneous tours will be conducted across the state this week, with more than 15,000 students from 65 primary schools welcoming the unique sight of surf lifesavers and receiving vital water safety information in the process.
As part of the program, surf lifesavers from the Gold Coast and Brisbane, along with two lifeguards from Townsville, will travel to Mount Isa and visit several schools in the region, before travelling through Camooweal, Doomadgee, Burketown and Cloncurry.
In total, the tour will see surf lifesavers travel almost 3000 kilometres and visit 13 schools along the way to teach kids how to stay safe on Queensland beaches.
SLSQ community awareness coordinator, Sarah Hesse, said the program had been developed after statistics identified people who lived more than 50 kilometres from the beach as a particularly ‘high risk’ group when it came to coastal drownings.
“It’s no secret that Australians love the water, be it the beach, the backyard pool or a country dam,” she said.
“With that in mind, it’s really important that every single Queenslander – regardless of where they live – is equipped with some of the basic skills, information and knowledge to protect themselves and others while in the water this summer.
“The Breaka Beach to Bush program helps our surf lifesavers continue to spread important messages far and wide throughout Queensland. It’s a really fun program for the kids and the lifesavers alike, delivering potentially lifesaving water safety lessons in a fun and engaging way,” she said.
Ms Hesse said students will receive vital water safety tips by taking part in an interactive presentation with a focus on swimming between the red and yellow flags and always following safety signs.
The educational program has been operating in Queensland since 1998 and, each year, sees surf lifesavers leave the beach and visit regional towns and cities across the state to spread the surf safety message. To this day the program remains one of the largest and most innovative community awareness initiatives in Australia, having directly reached more than 280,000 school children since its inception.