How did surf lifesaving begin?
During the nineteenth century, legislation banned bathing in public between the hours of 6am and 8pm. In the closing decades of the century, many regular bathers, who were becoming increasingly frustrated with the restrictive by-laws, began to lobby the state government and local councils to lift the bans. By the opening years of the twentieth century, Sydney’s codes of morality had shifted enough that local police refused to arrest or prosecute a number daylight bathers who were dressed in what was deemed to be appropriate costume. In the following years all of Sydney’s seaside councils lifted their bans restricting daylight bathing, although the practice continued to be opposed by moral groups for some years. As a consequence of the lifting of these bans, the popularity of what was called surf-bathing increased rapidly. Unfortunately however, so did the number of bathers who got into difficulty in the surf.
