A former lifesaver who helped a man out of a rip last month has asked how many incidents it will take before a lifeguard is reinstated at the unpatrolled beach.
Adam Ellis had gone down to Wurtulla beach at lunchtime on a Saturday to cool off after mowing his lawn when he saw a couple get into trouble in the water.
“I was sitting on the deck and I saw these people go down the beach and drop their clothes and I thought there was no way they were going to go in there – there’s a rip straight in front of them,” he said.
“It was basically the worst place they could have gone in. As soon as they went in, they were moving.”
Mr Ellis, who did 10 years with the Kawana Waters Surf Life Saving Club, watched as the woman managed to get to shore but the man, who was trying to swim directly against the rip, began to struggle.
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“I swam out and swam him back to the sand,” he said.
Mr Ellis said he was aware of one and possibly two other rescues carried out by locals at the beach, and another involving a lifeguard on a roving patrol who pulled a man and boy out of the water, since December.
He said the rescues pointed to a need for a lifeguard to be returned to Wurtulla beach, which lost its lifeguard service in May.
“We’ve had four rescues in a two-month period where they’ve needed the public or someone passing by to save the lives of people,” Mr Elllis said.
“It will be when someone does drown there and a death does happen, it will be what locals were saying was right, there needs to be a lifeguard.”
A Sunshine Coast Council spokesperson said funding for the Wurtulla lifeguard was reallocated to Bokarina Beach, 500m north, in September last year.
“The decision to reallocate this service was made in partnership with SLSQ and was in response to changing demands and coastal risks, most notably due to growth in attendances at Bokarina,” the spokesperson said.
“Since lifeguard services started at Bokarina Beach in September 2020, there has been steady growth in beach attendances, while current data suggest attendances at Wurtulla have decreased during this time.”
The spokesperson said a trailer with a camera and emergency call button was deployed at Wurtulla until a camera and emergency call button, both connecting to Surf Life Saving Queensland’s state operations communications centre, were installed on the lifeguard tower.
The spokesperson said Bokarina was patrolled seven days a week from the September school holidays to May, plus weekends and school and public holidays during winter.
“No matter how confident you think you are in the water, it doesn’t take much to walk that beautiful beach an extra 500m to swim in a patrolled area,” the spokesperson said.
Local resident Trevor Heard said a lot of people continued to use Wurtulla and would continue to do so, particularly given the shortage of parking at Bokarina Beach.
Mr Heard said Wurtulla warranted a lifeguard, even if only on weekends during summer because of the “high risk”.
