Tales of the daring and dramatic rescues from Victoria’s beaches
People are rescued from the coastal Victorian waters almost everyday, some big and others small. Here are some of the rescues from Victorian waters.
Warrnambool
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Victorian beaches have seen many daring rescues throughout time.
Some are big, others smaller but every rescue requires bravery, with some even giving their lives to save that of another.
As the weather continues to warm up throughout the state Life Saving Victoria are urging beach goers and swimmers to be vigilant about the risks of swimming and other water activities.
LSV manager of research and evaluation Dr Hannah Calverley said water safety was a serious issue.
“With January marking school holidays, many families will head away to the coast or river to enjoy a relaxing break, but the one thing you can never relax on is water safety,” Dr Calverley said.
Straight from the mouths of rescuers here is a look at some of the rescues carried out on Victorian shores over the past several years.
Mighty Bay rescue
John Whitson from the Warrnambool Life Saving Club was involved in a major rescue a few years ago at Mighty Bay.
It was nearly patrol knock off time and a call came through for three people stressed in the water.
“We were lucky we were still set up,” he said.
The people were down in the rougher part of the bay and there was “a reasonable swell rolling in”.
Mr Whitson said it was “lucky” he was out in the inflatable rescue boat at the time the call came through.
“My colleague David Owen jumped in the rubber duck and we headed out and we had to go out a fair way to navigate our way in because there was a fair sea running,” he said.
When they finally managed to locate the distressed swimmers they were able to pull them from the water and bring them to shore.
“We got them to the beach and gave them first-aid,” he said.
“If we happened to be a little later, I don’t think the father — one of the people we rescued — would have been too good, so we probably just got there in time.”
The rescued people were given oxygen and taken away by ambulance to ensure there were no further complications.
Mr Whitson said that was a “major” rescue for him and he is thankful the outcome wasn’t worse.
Port Campbell 2019 drownings
In 2019 The Port Campbell Life Saving Club was shaken after they lost two of their own members in a rescue.
Farmer Ross Powell, 71, and his son Andy Powell were part of a rescue mission near the Twelve Apostles after a tourist got into trouble on Easter Sunday.
The boat that the pair and local CFA captain Philip Younis were taking out to rescue a foreign tourist flipped in a large swell, tossing all three into the treacherous waters yesterday morning.
Mr Younis and the tourist, 30, were rescued by helicopter.
Mr Younis underwent surgery on his hip, pelvis and spleen.
Scott McKenzie of the Port Campbell Surf Life saving Club said to date it was the “biggest situation” the club has “been involved in”.
“Our most tragic rescue was the Easter Sunday 2019 accident that happened when we lost two of our members and a third member was permanently injured, that was the biggest situation we have ever been involved in,” he said.
Torquay rescue
Ben Harris, of the Torquay Life Saving Club, hasn’t been involved in any major rescues however, smaller rescues can still be just as important.
He says he remembers pulling a girl from the ocean when she was struggling to swim on her own.
“Two summers ago now when there was this girl that was very far out in the sea,” he said.
“She was struggling to keep afloat.”
Mr Harris said he was “lucky he could get there in time”.
“The surf was quite big and it was quite challenging to reach her but I got there in the end,” he said.
“I was lucky because if I was a few moments later it probably wouldn’t have been a better outcome than it was.”
“That’s one of the most serious rescues I have been involved in.”
Gunnamatta beach 2019 rescue
A former Point Leo life saver who saved a drowning man at Gunnamatta beach on Christmas Eve back in 2019 said he thought they were both going to die.
Jed Lovell was enjoying his first Christmas Eve off in 20 years when he decided to take a late afternoon swim at his favourite beach spot.
He had only just jumped in the water when he noticed the man a long way out from shore.
As Mr Lovell swam out he realised the man was in trouble.
“The waves were extraordinarily big and the guy was right at the back break getting pommeled,” he said.
“I called out to him and he was screaming like crazy and then I realised he’d been yelling for help the whole time.”
Mr Lovell said he got out there as fast as he could to find the man who had a cheap boogie board which was falling apart in the waves.
Mr Lovell said he tried to sidestroke the man back to shore but the relentless waves made it almost impossible.
“I was getting incredibly tired,” he said.
“He had already given up, he kept saying ‘we’re going to die, we’re going to die’.
“I also had doubts either of us would make it back,”
“The temptation was to just get myself in and leave him but I couldn’t have lived with myself,” he said.
Mr Lovell then remembered a sand bank about 100m from shore could provide their only chance of survival. He managed to get them both there.
Both men were treated at the beach by an off-duty nurse.
“When I found out he was OK I was finally able to relax.
“I said to him ‘we get to experience another Christmas’.”
The 21-year-old man, whose first name is Chris, was taken to hospital and made a full recovery.
Father son rescue at Gunnamatta beach
Alan Kiernan, 65, and his son Liam Kiernan, 16, were among the first people to notice two young men struggling in the water 50m from shore at Gunnamatta beach on the evening of January 10 this year.
Alan Kiernan said he immediately ran to the surf club to get help and when he returned he saw his son, Liam in the water already trying to perform the rescue.
Liam managed to reach the boy and assist him back to the beach.
“I got down to the waterline and my son struggled like crazy, but he got the young guy in, he was in a bad way,” Mr Kiernan said.
Other bystanders along the beach had also kicked into action, with one local man jumping into the water to try and save the boy’s 20-year-old brother, but his efforts were in vain.
At the same time, the father of the pair, who had been on the beach, jumped into the tough surf but also got into trouble. He was rescued by a local man known by the nickname “Plugger”.
The remaining surf lifesavers reportedly searched “frantically” for the 20-year-old man as Ambulance Victoria and police arrived at the scene – but they were unable to find him.
Despite the tragic outcome for one of the brothers, Mr Kiernan praised the other locals who sprang into action.
“For those two people to enter the water, with disregard for their own safety, to try and rescue these guys, I just find that quite amazing,” Mr Kiernan said.
Stroke sufferer rescued on Phillip Island
Stephen Fullerton was out for a paddle at Crazy Birds beach off of Phillip Island in July 2021 when he suffered a stroke in the water and had to be rescued by nearby surfers.
34-year-old local Dan Seale had just arrived at the beach and was putting on his leg rope for a surf when he feared something bad was happening to the bloke in the water.
“He’d come off a wave and was still in the same spot where I‘d first noticed him,” Mr Seal said.
He rushed into the water, covering the 30m swim in record time.
“I pinned his hand on his board and I looked down on his face and he was all grey. His lips were purple and he was looking back at me from under the water and I thought ‘this guy is likely to die’,” Mr Seale said.
After a frantic struggle to get Mr Fullarton’s dead weight on his board, a wave picked up the pair and drove them over nearby rocks and closer to shore.
But rocky terrain prevented them going any further and Mr Seale was quickly becoming exhausted.
That’s when Larsen Henderson noticed the commotion from his position on the stairs and swung into action.
“By the time I got down the stairs they were crashing up against the rocks and were stuck,” Mr Henderson said.
“I jumped in and we basically just winched him out, because he was a dead weight and we had the waves smashing us around.”
Once they were all out of the water My Henderson got a bystander to call triple-0.
“Once they stabilised him they popped him on a mobile stretcher because the access was so terrible, and then the crew dragged it back up the stairs again,” Mr Henderson said.
Mr Fullerton had suffered a haemorrhagic stroke causing a burst vessel to pour blood into his brain and build up life-threatening pressure demanding the immediate care of neurosurgeons.
Luckily he survived and made almost a full recovery.
Cape Paterson Aquathon rescue
Performing any rescue is something no one ever hopes to do but performing one on a good friend is something people would dread.
Mark Leg from the Cape Paterson Surf Life Saving Club had to resuscitate one of his best friends in 2011 when he collapsed on the beach during an aquathon.
Rod Kimmins, a Cape Paterson local, was 53-years-old when he had just finished his swim in the Cape Paterson aquathon and collapsed, no breathing on the beach.
Mr Leg was patrolling the event and quickly came to Mark’s aid.
CPR was required and Mr Kimmins was clinically dead for four minutes before CPR crews could revive him.
“It was very intense as he was a good friend of mine,” Mr Leg said.
“But we did it, we got him back to life.”
After four minutes Mr Kimmins started to “come to”.
“He started regaining consciousness and even talking to us,” Mr Leg said.
After that he was taken away in an ambulance to hospital.
“It was quite stressful because for a few days we didn’t know how he was going,” Mr leg said.
“I didn’t sleep for 24 hours because I was just on an adrenaline high.”
A few days later Mark got the good news, his actions and the actions of his team had saved Mr Kimmins life.
Just ten days after being dead for four minutes and undergoing a quadruple bypass Mr Kimmins was back home.
An undiagnosed hear condition had caused the collapse.
“He called me up and he was joking ‘what did you buggers do to me, you broke my ribs’,” Mr Leg said.
“He still gives me a hard time about it.”
One day, two ambulances and a shark sighting
In December 2022, the lifesavers on patrol at Cape Woolamai Surf Life Saving Club had a very busy day.
Just before patrol began at 10am, a surfer presented himself to the life saving club with a head injury and suspected spinal injury.
Patrol Captain Liam Comber said an ambulance had to be called immediately.
“They treated him on scene,” he said.
After the man had been sorted to get to hospital, the patrol then kicked off.
Shortly after a surfer washed up into the shallows.
“We were kind of expecting the worst,” Mr Comber said.
“It turns out he had pretty badly injured his hamstring and couldn’t walk or move his leg.”
Mr Comber and his team had to get the man out of the water and up the beach so an ambulance could come and take him to hospital.
“We got his leg immobilised and he got the green whistle to help with his pain,” Mr Comber said.
As the patrol was winding up the watch tower got a call from Phillip Island Helicopters reporting two great white sharks swimming just past the break.
“We immediately got some guys on jet skis out there looking for them,” Mr Comber said.
“We pulled the flags down and advised everyone on the beach.”
“We closed the beach for the rest of the day.”
While the shark search was going on, to top off the day, another surfer approached the life savers with a dislocated finger.
Mr Comber said despite the day being so packed he was still “proud” of himself and the team as the events that occurred weren’t really preventable.
“We focus really heavily on preventing rescues,” he said.
“So because these were things we couldn’t really have stopped I thought we still had a pretty good day.”
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