Black Sunday Rescues

At 3 o'clock the outlook changed within a few moments. A giant wave swelled out of nowhere to tower ahead of the sandbank and then break over it. A second freak wave broke over the sandbank to wash more surfers into the channel. The deep water was boiling with fury now, from which scores of swimmers struggled to escape. That final blow collapsed the sandbank and left hundreds of swimmers floundering in chaos.

Lifesavers rushed into action, but before the beltman could do little more than splash into the water, 300 people were being swept out to sea by the run-out of those three giant waves. Then commenced the greatest mass rescue in history of surfing. Thirty lifesavers who had been lining up for a practice surf race dashed to the help of the men on patrol. Other surf club men came streaming from the club house, some fully dressed. North Bondi men came running from their end of the beach to help, bringing extra reels. Soon there were 80 lifesavers at work. But it was a difficult job. Beltmen reaching the struggling swimmers were mobbed from all sides and badly hampered. Weakened and sometimes panicking men and women clung to the lines between beach and beltmen.

The lifesavers worked tirelessly and without let-up, bringing in patients and battling back through the surf to look for more. One lifesaver manned a surf ski and used it to bring in patient after patient.

Throughout the rescue, anxious, often hysterical people milled about on the beach, uncertain about the fate of missing and loved ones. Among those treated by ambulance men was a young mother in a state of collapse, though it turned out later that her two children had not been in the surf and had merely been lost in confusion on the beach.

When at last the sea had been cleared of the stricken surfers, resuscitation work still went on. Forty-two people had been brought in unconscious. Of these, four men did not survive. Hours later it was established that another man was missing. During the mass rescue, radio news flashes had told of what was happening and sent hordes of local people flocking to the beach