Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This black-and-white silent clip shows a well-attended surf carnival in about 1929 at which lifesavers demonstrate their skills, watched by a crowd. Footage shows the lifesavers marching with military precision up the sand from the water’s edge in different groups that are probably separate clubs. The groups turn in unison and begin to march back to the ocean. The next scene shows lifesavers pulling a person from the water with the line and reel in a simulated rescue. The person is carried up the beach and resuscitation is demonstrated, followed by the lifesavers lining up.

Educational value points

• The footage in this clip shows a carnival or interclub championship held on Sydney’s Bondi Beach in about 1929, viewed by a large crowd. The participants are all apparently male. At the time women were generally regarded as not being strong enough for surf lifesaving. Since the first Surf Life Saving Association championships were held at Bondi Beach in 1915 these events have played an important part in the surf-lifesaving movement, raising public awareness and much-needed funds as well as helping to develop the skills of Australia’s lifesavers.

• The lifesavers shown demonstrating the lifesaving drills in the clip appear fit and highly trained and are wearing the sport’s typical one-piece swimming costume and cap of the time. Sergeant John Bond developed the army-type drill for the Bondi Club that was first seen there in 1906. The strict discipline of the drills not only provided a structure for rescue that could easily be taught to volunteers, but during the Depression in the 1920s and 1930s provided a point of focus and a morale booster for young people.

• The clip reveals the lifesaving apparatus used in the early 20th century, namely the reel, line and belt. This equipment was developed by Bondi Club’s Lyster Ormsby and built by John Bond in 1906. The method involved the lifesaver wearing a belt with a rope attached to a reel on the beach. Once the lifesaver reached the person to be rescued the crew on the beach could haul them both to safety. Team discipline and control were essential to the success of this method.

• Footage of lifesavers performing the Schafer ‘prone pressure’ method of resuscitation, first practised in 1909, is shown. The patient is laid face down, head to one side and arms alongside the body with palms facing down. The rescuer, kneeling at their side with palms down, thumbs 15 cm apart and parallel with the spine, presses down on the patient’s back, expelling water. This position is held before the action is repeated. This method was superseded by the ‘kiss-of-life’ method.

• This early footage of surf-lifesaving activities on Bondi Beach is an important historical record exemplifying the work of volunteer lifesavers in Australia. The Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club was formed in 1906 and the Surf Bathing Association of NSW in 1907. Around Australia associations and clubs then began starting up, from which grew the Surf Lifesaving Association of Australia.

• The footage and editing seen in the clip indicate the nature of the heavy cameras of the time. The camera remains static on a tripod and has to be moved to capture the different perspectives shown. Mid-shots are used to show the resuscitation method more closely. Fades, dissolves and cuts are used to shift the focus of the footage, perhaps creating the sense of action required for the newsreel audience.

• The clip is from Travelogue of Eastern States, an example of a story from an Australian newsreel that usually accompanied a feature film. Early newsreels typically covered several stories, either from the recent news or of public interest. They changed weekly to cater for the regular patronage of the cinema, and became widely popular in the 1920s. Newsreels form an important source of footage for later documentaries, as they provide not only contemporary visual images, but insights into the interests and enthusiasms of the period.