Surfers Paradise Surf Life Saving Club's Claude Jeanneret on his 75 years at the famous club
At age 93, this clubbie has served Surfers Paradise SLSC for 75 of its 100 years. These are the remarkable moments he can never forget.
Gold Coast
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It was the day the sea turned red at Surfers Paradise.
Just after 3pm on November 23, 1958, a bell rang out on that famous beach as a dark shadow dragged a young man under the waves, just 250m offshore.
Surfers Paradise Surf Life Saving Club captain Claude Jeanneret, only 27 at the time, was in charge as this fatal shark attack unfolded.
Now aged 93, and with 75 years of unbroken active membership at the 100-year-old club, Mr Jeanneret remembers it all with crystal clarity.
“I was captain so I had to take charge of the operation when the lifesavers brought him into the beach,” said Mr Jeanneret.
“He had the biggest bite I’ve ever seen, from his lower back down to below his knee, all the flesh was gone but there wasn’t a broken bone.
“There was a doctor there telling me to get a tourniquet on him … but where? It was hopeless. He was gone before he left the water.
“I’ll just never forget how red the surf was, it was awful. His name was Peter Spronk and he was just 21 years old. He was the swimming captain at Brisbane State High, and that was the same school I had gone to.
“Everyone that day did the best they could but it was a battle already lost.”
But there’s another part to Mr Jeanneret’s story. A postscript that perfectly captures the character of this colourful nonagenarian.
After possibly the worst day ever on patrol, he was keen to get home and put the horrific afternoon behind him.
“After all that I got pinched for speeding on the way home that night,” he said.
“I had to go see the super at Southport police station to explain the circumstances and luckily he let me off. You could get away with that then.”
As one of the oldest, if not the oldest, life savers in Australia, Mr Jeanneret joined Surfers Paradise SLSC in 1948, after members of his swimming club in Brisbane served beach patrols during World War II.
He said most members lived in Brisbane at the time, but would stay at the club in a room that housed 31 bunks.
He said he would usually hitchhike home down the one-lane road from the Gold Coast to Brisbane.
“None of us had our own cars at that age and in those years. It would take about an hour and 45 minutes to get between the Coast and Brisbane … but that’s probably faster than it is these days with the traffic,” he laughed.
“It was such a great culture, back in those early days when you all lived together on the weekends you really got to know each other. It’s the greatest social organisation I’ve ever been a part of and I’d do it all over again if I could.”
Earlier this year, Mr Jeanneret was awarded life membership of Surf Life Saving Australia for his 75 years of continuous service, but it was far from his first official recognition.
He was given Life Membership at Surfers Paradise SLSC in 1964 and by Northcliffe SLSC in 2002, as well as Life Membership of SLSQ in 2021 for his outstanding and distinguished service at a state level.
In his lifesaving career he’s held positions including examiner, official, superintendent, officer, district supervisor and delegate. He remains the longest serving councillor to the Queensland South Coast Branch with continuous service from 1999 to 2023.
In 2013, he was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his services to Surf Life Saving.
Perhaps it’s no surprise then that he’s running out of space on the walls of his Broadbeach Waters home to display his certificates, medals and memorabilia.
But one of his greatest contributions in the history of surf life saving was the role he played in helping to pioneer and implement the groundbreaking new mouth-to-mouth ‘expired air resuscitation’ (EAR) method as part of the Queensland Resuscitation Committee formed in 1958.
Surf Life Saving was the first group to endorse and introduce EAR, not just in Australia but in the world.
“In those days I was the South Coast branch superintendent for life saving and so I was part of this committee, which was led by anaesthetist Dr Roger Bennett,” he said.
“Dr Bennett took the committee to the operating theatre at the Royal Brisbane Hospital to show how a patient could be kept alive with expired air resuscitation. The patient was given drugs to stop breathing so that the techniques could be demonstrated – can you imagine trying to do that now?
“About 12 months later our committee was brought to St Andrew’s Hospital, along with the police, ambulance and fire services, the electrical trades union and lifesaving representatives.
“There were four volunteer guinea pigs that were knocked out and then resuscitated. It was a success.”
In 1959, Mr Jeanneret was part of the first public display of EAR, televised on ABC Channel 2 Brisbane. In March 1960, EAR was demonstrated to the International Convention on Life Saving Techniques, which endorsed it, and it was introduced to lifesaving organisations around the world.
Aside from his life saving accomplishments, which meant he spent most weekends on the Coast, Mr Jeanneret worked for 40 years in Brisbane for the Postmaster General’s Department (PMG), later Telecom, now Telstra.
And yes, he has a medal for that too.
He moved to the outskirts of the Gold Coast at Yatala, back when it was still part of the Albert Shire, before finally making it all the way to our city in 1988.
But that comes with its own story as well.
“I lived on 10 acres of land at Yatala but finally left when I received an interesting offer,” he said.
“The buyers couldn’t get permission to build a crematorium on the Gold Coast, but they could build it in the Albert Shire … and that’s what they had planned for my land.
“So I sold my place and it became a crematorium … and I moved to the Gold Coast.
“Fortunately I haven’t had to use their services yet, but I’ve been assured I will get a discount.”
At 93, Mr Jeanneret said he’s confident that staying so involved in surf life saving has kept him healthy and connected to the community.
While he’s outlived many clubbies, he still has plenty of old friends as well as family to keep him busy.
But he admits he’s also lucky.
In fact, on the day of this chat, Mr Jeanneret had just returned from playing the pokies, where he managed to turn a $5 flutter into a $2000 windfall.
“Sometimes you’re just in the right place at the right time,” he laughed.
“But sometimes you’re not.”
And you can’t help but think of that poor young man, the red sea at Surfers and the history of our clubbies serving to keep our coastline safe.
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