Victorian Lifesaver of the Year develops multicultural water safety programs

Victoria's Lifesaver of the Year Heath Armstrong prefers teaching people about water safety to dragging them from the surf.

Big honour: Lorne Surf Club lifesaver and Victorian Lifesaver of the Year Heath Armstrong has developed water safety programs for people from non-English speaking backgrounds. Picture: Andy Rogers

HEATH Armstrong completed a rescue on his very first patrol.

The Lorne lifesaver and last year’s Life Saving Victoria’s Lifesaver of the Year had just come into the beach with his teammates because their boat needed refuelling.

It was then they noticed a swimmer in trouble.

“She was probably inside the 60-second window — another minute and she would’ve been in a fair bit of strife,” Heath, 30, said.

“That rescue flicked the light on in my head and I realised the training I had is actually really important and valuable in the community.

“I went from there, kept upskilling and being more and more involved.”

The rescue was also memorable — and hilarious — for another reason. Heath had half pulled off his wetsuit on the beach when he was suddenly called to action.

“The first wave dacked me in front of 2000 people,” he laughs.

“I hiked the wetsuit back up and got on with it.”

Heath grew up in Bambra, near Winchelsea, and started lifesaving in his early 20s because as a teacher at the local P-12 school, he needed his bronze medallion. He was relatively older than many of his patrol mates — you can get your bronze medallion at 15 — but said his age made him a leader of sorts.

Lorne Surf Club lifesaver and Victorian Lifesaver of the Year Heath Armstrong.

He is now Lorne Surf Lifesaving Club emergency call out co-ordinator, organising the responses at times the flags are not up at the beach, and works closely with multicultural groups to teach them about water safety and associated skills.

Winning the award last year was “an interesting one” because much of his work is done in teams, he says, from resuscitations of patients, to the multicultural programs, to working with the emergency services.

“They’re just really great teams and that’s what I enjoy,” he says.

“Being recognised individually is an interesting concept, but a huge honour still and something I’m proud of and will be for some time to come.”

Working with the multicultural groups was something Heath had wanted to do for a while. Taking on a senior role at Lorne club “gave me an opportunity to have some flexibility and design my own programs”.

“Lorne and Apollo Bay are the two main beaches for Colac and so it was really important to get on the front foot with what we call preventive action in lifesaving

“We wanted to approach these communities and try to teach them some skills that might help them, not only on the beach but also back home.

“We did first aid training as well and tried to spread the information among their community.”

Last year Lorne LSC worked with the Colac Sudanese community, while this summer they will be working with a group of Chinese workers from a Colac abattoir.

“It’s their first summer in Australia so we’re trying to teach them about beach safety and swimming between the flags and things,” he said.

“It is fairly unknown that a lot of southeast Asian visitors, tourists and migrants think it is a normal thing to pay to swim between the flags.

“In a lot of countries outside Australia that is fairly standard.”

With the potential for the language barrier to interfere, Heath says it is a “very visual message”.

“It’s better to show what a rip is than to describe it, and what the flags are, what lifesavers do,” he says.

Some of booklets and posters are also written in multiple languages.

“It is really challenging but also really rewarding.”

In the Easter holidays, members from Lorne and other clubs along the surf coast will be working with a group of students from Gunbalanya in Arnhem Land.

Preparation for each group is different because each community is different, Heath says. But this group will be particularly special.

“It is a huge undertaking. We have significantly different ways of life,” Heath says.

“It is going to be a great learning curve.”