IF YOU RESIDE IN OR AROUND TOWNSVILLE – WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT
Royal Life Saving needs your help in collecting data to further water safety advocacy and reduce drowning in the region.
The research study aims to: – Explore where, how often and what you do at aquatic locations in and around Townsville – Explore how far you travel and how often you visit aquatic locations in and around Townsville – Your thoughts on water safety in Townsville
A new financial year means it is time to renew your facility’s subscription to the Guidelines for Safe Pool Operations (GSPO)!
The GSPO is the recognised national industry standard that describes and makes recommendations as to the appropriate minimum standards of safety that should be attached to the design, ownership and operations of aquatic facilities thereby providing a recognised standard of care in a particular area of design and/or operations.
They provide a recognised standard of care in particular areas of design and operations. While subscription is voluntary, it is highly recommended and on a per-facility basis.
Under a variety of legal standards and frameworks, facility designers, owners and operators are charged with the responsibility of ensuring public and worker health and safety arising from the business and/or undertaking of aquatic facilities and their activities. For 30 years, Royal Life Saving has written the Guidelines for Safe Pool Operation (GSPO), which compiles and contextualises these standards and frameworks, making them easier to understand and apply to aquatic facilities.
Although published by Royal Life Saving, the GSPO represents the collective opinion of the aquatic industry across Australia, through an extensive and consultative development and review process undertaken by the National Aquatic Industry Committee (NAIC). As such, the GSPO is written and authorised for industry by industry – leveraging a formal network of collaborators both nationally and internationally.
All aquatic facility designers, owners and operators are strongly recommended to access and have an understanding of the GSPO in order to meet their obligations under the respective state and/or territory health and safety legislation.
Royal Life Saving Society – Australia is proud to launch its first Reconciliation Action Plan, taking the challenge to learn, listen and commit to reconciliation with our First Nations people.
It is hoped that this journey will influence our staff, volunteers, member organisations and partners to make positive contributions to reconciliation in their communities across Australia.
We aspire to ensure that children have access to swimming pools and swimming lessons. That youth learn lifesaving skills, and we provide opportunities to viable careers both in aquatics and those leadership lessons into other jobs and other elements of life.
We aspire to harness the transformative power of the local pool as a venue for social cohesion, for community connections and for health benefits that extend beyond childhood and across all life stages.
The rivers, lakes, pools billabongs and dams in Australia bring life to communities. They are places for play, social connection, and recreation. They can also be spaces of danger and tragedy.
We note the long-term lifesaving skills of coastal and freshwater nations. Those skills helped to keep communities safe in seasons of floods and cyclones.
Our ambition is to continue partnerships that actively engage and encourage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to access, design, participate in, and lead water safety programs for safety, fun and employment.
As part of our Reconciliation Action Plan, Royal Life Saving is committed to the principles of relationships, respect, and opportunities. We celebrate the resilience, survival, wisdom, deep connection to water and land that continues in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and communities.
Royal Life Saving thanks Reconciliation Australia, Murawin Consultants and Sahba Delshad for guiding us through this process.
ON JULY 25, PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD WILL MARK THE SECOND WORLD DROWNING PREVENTION DAY
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 IS INEQUITABLE
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 ARE ASKING ORGANISATIONS ACROSS QUEENSLAND TO HELP PROMOTE WORLD DROWNING PREVENTION DAY
SCHOOLS
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.
The school that raises the most money in their region will receive our Royal Rescuers program for free!
Our Royal Rescuers 1 hour Water Safety Education Program is a water safety and CPR awareness skills and knowledge program for school students (prep – year 8), aiming to provide the skills and knowledge for staying safe in and around the water, how to offer assistance and CPR awareness.
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. This will also be awarded in conjunction with other RLSSQ gifts of thanks.
We are also putting our ‘Rescue’ Challenge forward to schools. This challenge will encourage students to undertake and film their best rescues (reach, throw, tow). Get creative!
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.
AQUATIC FACILITIES
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.
Additionally, we are asking industry to help further promote this message by asking swim school participants to attend their swimming lessons in blue, and by tagging us in their best rescues (reach, throw, tow) videos for our ‘Rescue Challenge’.
RLSSQ RESCUE CHALLENGE
The #RLSSQRescueChallenge calls for participants to undertake and film their best water or land-based rescues. This could include; Talk, Reach, Throw or Tow Rescues.
REACHTHROWTOW
We can’t wait to see your skills – get creative!
*Please note that safety should be considered at all times.
Be sure to tag #DrowningPrevention, #WorldDrowningPrevention Day and @RoyalLifeSavingSocietyQueensland and @RoyalLifeSaving in your social media posts.
Register here to take part in our World Drowning Day Prevention Activities:
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On Tuesday morning, Ithaca-Caloundra City Life Saving Club played host to the Royal Life Saving Society Queensland and Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Service Agreement Launch.
Over the course of the morning, we were joined by a few students from STEPS Pathways College who helped demonstrate their newfound water safety skills gained from our Water STAARS pilot program held back in April this year. The activities included rescue tube relays and rescue tube rescues.
The five-week pilot program was designed to help people with a disability enjoy Queensland waterways safely by equipping them with essential information and safety skills.
The pilot program proved such a success that a 12-week water safety course will now be integrated in the college from term 4 onwards.
The celebrated agreement will fund critical training activities including Bronze Medallion, Swim Teacher Courses and water safety programs, and will help more than 350 volunteers to save lives in Queensland over the next two years.
As well as coastal locations at Airlie Beach, Ithaca-Caloundra and the Neptune Life Saving Club, the funding will support new community swimming programs and training at places such as Boulia and Winton in the Central West and Thursday Island.
We would like to thank QFES Commissioner Mr Greg Leach, Acting Deputy Commissioner Stephen Smith and Mr Jason Hunt MP Member for Caloundra for joining us to celebrate such a successful partnership.
We are very grateful to the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services for their support of us, so we can continue delivering nationally recognised programs to Queenslanders.
The National Water Safety Summit 2022 will bring together people from across all areas of the water safety sector to reflect on progress and explore opportunities to strengthen alignment to the Australian Water Safety Strategy 2030 (AWSS).
This two-day National Summit will focus on:
Energising the water safety sector across Australia after a challenging 2 years
Connecting, collaborating, and sharing ideas among water safety researchers, policy makers and practitioners
Driving the implementation of the AWSS 2030 and key activities towards achieving the goal of a 50% reduction in drowning
Royal Life Saving and Surf Life Saving are proudly supporting this event on behalf of the Australian Water Safety Council. We expect many friends and colleagues to contribute to the program and help make this event reinforcing of a collaborative approach to reducing drowning in Australia.
This event forms part of Australian plans to commemorate the 2nd UN declared World Drowning Prevention Day on 25 July 2022. This year WHO is encouraging individuals, groups, and governments to do one thing to prevent drowning.
EVENT DETAILS
The National Water Safety Summit 2022 will be held on Thursday 4th and Friday 5th August 2022 at the International Convention Centre (ICC) Sydney.
Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea will be provided. A networking social function is scheduled for the end of day one (Thursday).
Each day will include:
Plenary sessions with keynote speakers
Short presentations designed to stimulate your thinking
Interactive workshopping and discussions
The following topics from the Australian Water Safety Strategy will be covered over the two-days:
Includes registration for Thursday 4th (including social function) and Friday 5th August 2022.
Single Day Registration
$300
Single day only – Thursday 4th or Friday 5th August 2022
Student Two Day Registration
$250
Proof of Student ID (full time) required
Student Single Day
$200
Single day only – indicate day 1 or day 2 during the registration process
All rates quoted include GST and are in Australian dollars.
Registration includes:
All morning and afternoon teas and lunches during the program
Free WiFi access throughout the venue
A ticket to the networking social function on Day 1 – Thursday 4th August 2022 (RSVP is required for catering purposes and can be provided during the registration process)
Access to recordings after the event
Certificate of participation (if required)
Cancellation Policy
Substitution:
If your circumstances change and you can no longer attend the event, you are welcome to nominate a substitute to attend at no additional cost by Friday 28th July 2022.
Cancellation:
You are entitled to a refund if the cancellation is received on or before Friday 15th July 2022.
However, refunds will be processed with a A$50 service charge applied per person of cancellation.
Cancellations received after Friday 15th July 2022 are not eligible for refunds.
Any cancellation or substitution requests should be made in writing and directed to info@rlssa.org.au
In accordance with our constitution, this year the positions of President, Honorary Treasurer and an ordinary board member are due for re-election. Any two financial members of the Society shall be at liberty to nominate any person to serve in any vacant position on the Board of Directors. Board members are required to be members of the Society.
The nomination shall be in writing and signed by the nominee, and the proposer and seconder and be lodged by 30 June 2022. The nomination may be hand delivered during business hours to our office at the Plantation (1204 New Cleveland Rd, Gumdale Qld 4154), or posted to the address shown below, however nominations must be received by us on or before 5pm on 30 June 2022.
The Secretary Royal Life Saving Society Queensland Inc PO Box 1093 CAPALABA QLD 4157
All nominations must be accompanied by a citation of no more than 200 words (one page with no pictures). To be eligible, all nominees must comply with requirements for an officeholder as issued by Queensland Government Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Australian Charity and Not-for-profit Commission (ACNC) in addition to any requirements of our rules and by-laws. In the event that there are two or more nominations for a role a postal ballot shall proceed of all financial members as at 30 June 2021.
Please note that if you have an unpaid debt to the Society you may not be considered a financial member. When ballot papers are circulated, the citation of each nominee will be included, with each citation edited to be in a similar format and font. The counting of ballot papers will be conducted by an external law firm and the outcome of the ballot will be announced at the Annual General Meeting which will be before 30 September 2022.
On 20 and 21 June 2022, Royal Life Saving attended the Brisbane Careers and Employment Expo at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. Over the two day period, staff were joined by over 120 organisations and employers with career opportunities for all ages.
We released our Aquatic Industry Job Guide at the expo giving school students information to be able to make informed decision about a career in the aquatic industry. We were approached by many industry organisations, school students and job seekers, in which we provided an array of materials outlining our courses and career progression opportunities, as well as explaining options for individuals that worked with their goals in the future.
As the peak body for drowning prevention, we played a game with all willing participants (via a video), to spot a drowning casualty before the lifeguard jumps in to rescue them by placing their hands on their head. If they did it correctly, they won a highly sought after duck.
We look forward to attending the next expo, and providing further information on our courses and training and career pathway opportunities for those interested in working in the Aquatic Industry!
Wanting to make a difference in the world of Swimming and Water Safety?
A PhD Scholarship opportunity is available now with Deakin University – Health and Royal Life Saving Society – Australia to initiate and conduct research on ‘Reducing drowning: understanding factors which contribute to risk and targeting those at risk’. Find out more about this PhD opportunity and how to apply by visiting: http://bit.ly/3NaPjXj
Applications will remain open until a candidate has been appointed
Benefits
This scholarship is available over 3 years.
Stipend of $28,900 per annum tax exempt (2022 rate)
International students only: Tuition fees offset for the duration of 4 years. Single Overseas Student Health Cover policy for the duration of the student visa.
Eligibility criteria
To be eligible you must:
be either a domestic or international candidate. Domestic includes candidates with Australian Citizenship, Australian Permanent Residency or New Zealand Citizenship.
meet Deakin’s PhD entry requirements
be enrolling full time and hold an honours degree (first class) or an equivalent standard master’s degree with a substantial research component.
