Membership can now be renewed for the 2023-24 Financial year.
Competency based trainers also need to complete a Profession Development Log (for Competency Based Trainers).
Royal Life Saving is pleased by the news that Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk MP has today launched a new lifesaving program, aimed at teaching Queensland kids how to swim.
SwimStart will provide greater access to swimming lessons for children aged 0 – 4 in a bid to improve water safety.
Eligible families will be able to apply for vouchers valued up to $150, amounting to a $4.8 million investment over two years from the Palaszczuk Government in the upcoming State Budget.
Royal Life Saving has been working with a range of industry partners and peak bodies to enhance swimming and survival skills of Queensland school children, and vouchers was discussed at the South East Queensland Water Safety Forum.
Read the Official Queensland Government Statement at the link below:
A new report on pool fencing legislation in Australia has found significant differences between states and territories, with fencing exemptions still applying to some pools despite the proven effectiveness of pool fences in reducing drowning deaths in young children.
The Royal Life Saving Society – Australia Review of Pool Fencing Legislation in Australia report examines the legislation in every Australia jurisdiction, finding that some still use old Australian Standards or have modified the Australian Standard.
Royal Life Saving Chief Executive Officer Justin Scarr said bringing all states and territories into alignment, and including regular inspections of all private swimming pools would save lives. “The evidence shows a 50 per cent reduction in drowning deaths in the 0-4 age group in the past 10 years, and pool fencing legislation has played a significant role in that reduction,” Mr Scarr said. “Bringing states and territories into alignment with their legislation would help reduce confusion about the rules that apply for fencing a backyard swimming pool. “One of the key things we’d like to see introduced across all jurisdictions is systematic approaches to regular inspections of pool fencing. “When we look at drowning in backyard pools there are four main ways children gain access: a faulty fence or gate; the absence of a fence; the gate being deliberately propped open; and the child climbing over the fence, often using pool furniture or pot plants next to the fence to gain a foothold.
“Regular inspections would make sure wear and tear issues affecting the functioning of the fence and gate are picked up before there is a tragedy. It would also provide the opportunity to remind pool owners about keeping the gates closed at all times and removing items that can be used to climb over the fence.
“For every child who dies in a drowning incident, an estimated eight more are hospitalised as a result of a non-fatal drowning incident, often being left with lifelong effects, including brain injuries. “While nothing takes the place of active supervision of young children to prevent drowning, we know distractions happen and a functioning pool fence and gate is an important way of keeping children safe when you are momentarily distracted.
“We urge all governments to work together to align the legislation to keep vulnerable young children safe from drowning.”
A new draft on the management of child safety in aquatic facilities was released this week by Royal Life Saving Society – Australia and the National Aquatic Industry Committee and is designed to help the aquatic industry understand and improve child safe practices.
The draft guideline provides owners and operators of aquatic facilities with practical guidance on how to interpret, apply and operationalise the 10 National Principles for Child Safe Organisations and the 11th Victorian Principle relating to cultural safety for Aboriginal children and young people. The new guideline will be available for consultation to subscribers to the Guidelines for Safe Pool Operations (GSPO) for the next three months. Click below to access the feedback form along with the Guidelines in the GSPO subscriber area.
To support the aquatic industry in implementing the National Principles for Child Safety, Royal Life Saving last year developed and released two e-learning modules to make compliance easier. The modules are split into two stakeholder groups whose responsibilities differ: one targeted at frontline workers and the other at management level staff.
These are available through the Royal Life Saving Queensland training website www.lifesavingtraining.com.au/pd
In April 2021, the United Nations adopted the historic first Resolution on Global Drowning Prevention, recognising the scale of the problem and calling for coordinated action to prevent drowning.
Drowning is an issue that affects every nation of the world. Globally, an estimated 235,600 people lost their lives to drowning in 2019.
In Australia hundreds of families lose loved ones to drowning every year.
Eighty percent of those who drown are male.
Drowning has been the cause of over 2.5 million preventable deaths in the last decade. It is a significant international issue that to date has been largely unrecognised relative to its impact.
More than 90% of drowning deaths occur in rivers, lakes, wells, domestic water storage vessels and swimming pools in low- and middle-income countries, with children and adolescents in rural areas disproportionately affected.
Drowning is among the ten leading causes of death for children and young people aged 1-24 years in every region of the world.
We would absolutely love and appreciate your support in promoting this important message by holding a free dress day – encouraging students to wear blue, along with a gold coin donation.
All schools that participate will receive a certificate of thanks, along with an explanation of how the money will be used to prevent drowning in Queensland.
All donations will go towards providing further programs and initiatives of Royal Life Saving Queensland to support our vision of a state free from drowning.
There have been a range of online marketing resources for industry to promote across their own communication channels and to display at their facility here. This content includes: Website, Social Media and Video Content.
Be sure to tag #DrowningPrevention, #WorldDrowningPreventionDay and @RoyalLifeSavingSocietyQueensland and @RoyalLifeSaving in your social media posts.
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Royal Life Saving Queensland is proud to share that recently a range of City of Gold Coast Aquatic Facilities were awarded Royal Life Saving’s Gold and Silver Pool Safety endorsements for 2023.
The City of Gold Coast facilities remain the only Queensland-based aquatic facilities to be recognised as achieving gold or silver status in safety within their aquatic facility operations.
The facilities endorsed under the program to achieve Gold status were:
– Upper Coomera Aquatic Centre
– Gold Coast Aquatic Centre
– Pimpama Sports Hub
– Miami Aquatic Centre
Facilities that achieved Silver status were:
– Helensvale Aquatic Centre
– Nerang Aquatic Centre
– Mudgeeraba Aquatic Centre
“It is pleasing to see that these centres have taken a proactive and industry leading approach in the provision of aquatic safety management at their venues.
These centres are some of the first in Queensland to achieve this very difficult rating and owners and operators have proactively been working hard over several years to ensure the venues achieve this rating.” – Paul Barry, Executive Director – Royal Life Saving Queensland.
You can read the full media release here.
b. 1890 Pt Douglas d. 1965 Brisbane
Awarded RLSSQ Life Membership in 1945-46
Mr Portley had lived in Warwick from the age of ten until his death in 1965. During that time, he was the manager of the public Baths and in 1952 was elected as Mayor. He was involved with swimming and lifesaving skills in the early days (prior to 1920) in the Condamine River where an area had been arranged for ‘pool’ activities.
He was part of a group – all members of the Harriers Swimming and Lifesaving Club – who dug out the foundation for the next pool which was on the bank high above the ‘Condamine Pool’. Those others were Claude Fitzgerald, Ted Lonergan, Mat Ahern and Arnie Fitzgerald. When the ‘new’ pool had been completed with Council support it included a Diving Tower as well. The official opening was in 1920.
It was during these decades that he became instrumental in brining swimmers of both international and national fame to Warwick for carnivals. In March 1921, at a Primary school’s carnival, the Vennings gave a demonstration of lifesaving.
From that time on, the pool was used by all local schools and colleges where he worked closely with the Principals to promote both swimming and lifesaving skills. Many students had distinguished themselves in aquatic activities.
Ned’s own awards were: Proficiency; Bronze Medallion; Instructors and Special Award of Merit. He was also the Warwick representative on the Royal Lifesaving Society Queensland Committee.
The Life Membership Award was presented to him in March 1945 by Mr R C Hamilton (President of the Warwick Secondary Schools Sports Association) at the 21st Annual Carnival as he had not been able to present at the Society’s AGM in Brisbane.
In 1957, the magnificent new Town Swimming Pool was built and names the E J Portley Pool.
The RLSSQ Beach Carnival is fast approaching and or club at Caloundra will once again host this event. the competition is open to all members of RLSSQ and affiliated clubs.
Date: Sunday 26 March 2023 (8am start)
The final date for registration is Sunday 12 March 2023. No late registrations will be accepted.
Effective supervision, both by carers and lifeguards, saves countless lives every year by stepping in when things start to go wrong, rather than providing first aid after the fact.
To help lifeguards build on their existing supervision and scanning skills to take them to the next level, Royal Life Saving Society – Australia has developed a new online module ‘Lifeguard Advanced Supervision Skills’.
The module, which is designed specifically for pool lifeguards, makes use of the growing body of research around the visual, cognitive and physical challenges lifeguards face when supervising an aquatic environment, often in difficult circumstances.
Royal Life Saving’s National Manager – Training and Workforce Development Shaun Jackson said honing supervision skills is critical for lifeguards, especially given that on average four people drown at public pools each year.
“We all know effective, vigilant supervision and scanning are critical components in ensuring patron safety,” Mr Jackson said.
“Yet the complexity of these tasks and the challenges lifeguards face are sometimes overlooked.
“Scanning a pool requires a range of visual cognitive processes involving focal and peripheral vision and cue discrimination, rapid information processing, use of short-term and long-term memory, analysis, judgement, and decision-making.
“Often lifeguards are trying to execute these complex skills in less-than-ideal environments over extended periods.
“This module takes learners through a close analysis of all the components that make up effective supervision. It will particularly help lifeguards to better understand the limitations of human visual cognitive resources and processes, how these connect to supervision and scanning, and what strategies and techniques they can deploy to overcome these challenges.”
The online module takes around 40 minutes to complete.
Successful completion of the module should contribute to meeting the requirements for annual in-service training for Lifeguards as set out in the Guidelines for Safe Pool Operations (GSPO) – Aquatic Supervision.
These modules add to the suite of Professional Development products for the aquatic industry workforce designed by Royal Life Saving. Other recently developed online learning modules include Swim Teaching for Participants on the Autism Spectrum, Teacher of Lifesaving, Conflict Management, Cultural Competence, Communication Skills, Child Safety for Frontline Staff, and Child Safety for Management Staff.
To find out more information about the Lifeguard Advanced Supervision Skills module, or other professional development offerings, contact your local Royal Life Saving office.
The Queensland Primary and Secondary School Life Saving Championships is back and being held on Sunday 23 April 2023, at the Sunshine Coast Grammar Aquatic Centre.
📅 Sunday 23 April 2023
🕒 Secondary students: 8.00am (Warm up), 9.00am (Start)
🕒 Primary Students: 1.00pm (Warm up), 1.30pm (Start)
💲 $10 per competitor (unlimited number of events)
The event allows schools that undertake programs such as Swim and Survive to give students a sporting alternative.
The Championship for the Primary school students will include age-appropriate swim racing and rescue events, such as the
The Secondary School students will have an opportunity to compete in the
The Championships are being hosted by the Sunshine Coast Grammar Pool Lifesaving Club, which is affiliated with Royal Life Saving.
The Championships are open to any school student. Entries close MONDAY 17 APRIL 2023
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