About Mission Beach Surf Lifesaving Club
The name Mission Beach is commonly used to refer to an area incorporating the five separate North Queensland coastal villages of Bingil Bay (pop. 438), Mission Beach (pop. 1,014), Wongaling Beach (pop. 1,323), South Mission Beach (pop. 968) and Carmoo (pop. 179), giving the area a combined population of 3,922.
From Bingil Bay in the north to South Mission Beach in the south, there are 15 kilometers of pristine coastline bordering the Coral Sea and surrounded by World Heritage listed rainforest. Just a few kilometers off the coast are the Family Group of Islands made up of Purtaboi, Dunk Island, Mung Um Gnackum, Kumboola Island, Timana Island, Bedarra Island, Wheeler Island, Coombe Island, Smith Island, Bowden Island and Hudson Island.
Located at South Mission Beach, Mission Beach SLSC was founded in 1944 when Jack Riley, a Cairns lifesaver who had moved to the nearby town of Tully to work on the railways, identified the need for a lifesaving club at Mission Beach.
Along with ten others he set about forming the club we know today. The original founding members were:
- Jack Riley
- Don Wheatley
- Peter Wheatley
- Harry Gourlay
- Bert Gourlay
- Fred Gourlay
- Roy Pease
- Doug Taylor
- Stan Flegler
- Ron Flegler
- Joe Collins
John Curtin was Prime Minister of Australia, and the Second World War in Europe was drawing to a close when the club was formed. Australian soldiers had been fighting with great distinction for five arduous years in the European and the Pacific theatres. Darwin and Townsville had been bombed, Japanese midget submarines had attacked Sydney Harbor, and the Battle of the Coral Sea had brought one of the most significant naval battles of the war to Australia’s doorstep.
Although the area of Mission Beach has been inhabited for at least 5,000 years by a rainforest dwelling people collectively known as the Djiru people, in 1944 when the Surf Club was formed, Mission Beach was barely on the map.
Until the late 1800’s the area was considered too dangerous for permanent settlement, but undeterred, Charles Freshney’s logging company started to cut down the groves of cedar trees around Clump Point in 1880, employing Aboriginal people for timber hauling, paying them with tobacco and tools.
In 1886 the Cutten brothers, Herbert, Leonard, James and Sidney, took up their selections in the area and built a homestead, which they called Bicton. Now known as Bingil Bay, their primary produce included mangoes, bananas, pineapples, coffee, citrus fruit and coconuts. Yet the area was remote and isolated, and even the determination and fortitude of the Cutten Brothers was severely tested by the harsh conditions.
Mission Beach SLSC’s first clubrooms – 1947
After the construction of a road from El Arish in the late 1920’s, the area became a popular camping place known as Mission Beach due to the mistaken belief that the Hull River Aboriginal Settlement previously located in the region was a religious mission.
It wasn’t until the 1940’s and 1950’s that Mission Beach developed into anything resembling a town with the Mission Beach Post Office opening on 15 December 1949, followed by Mission Beach State School in 1953.
Initially club members trained in Banyon Creek at Tully during the week, travelling to South Mission Beach on weekends in a truck belonging to, and generously loaned to the fledgling club by the Shire of Caldwell.
Early patrols were carried out using a tarpaulin strung between Casuarina trees at the edge of the beach and the truck for shelter.
At the time most of the land at South Mission Beach was owned by Peter White, Chairman of the Cardwell Shire Council, who used the land for grazing cattle. In 1946 he Generously donated two blocks on the Esplanade at South Mission Beach, which would become the first permanent home of Mission Beach SLSC.
That same year the Club purchased a surplus Army hut, dismantled and transported it from Stoney Creek in the tablelands to South Mission Beach where it became the top story of the Club’s first clubrooms, built by Tully builder Joe Riley.
Today Mission Beach SLSC is a small but vibrant family orientated club dedicated to a common goal of achieving zero preventable drownings on our patrolled beach. In this we are guided by our values of safety, trust, community, leadership, respect, network and conscious of the age-old motto of surf lifesaving, “Vigilance and Service”.