Maroochydore Life Saving and Swimming Club was formed on 1 January 1916, in a tent erected at Cotton Tree camping ground by the Salvation Army for the Christmas Holidays of December 1915/January 1916. The camping ground had been going since 1896 and is said to have attracted up to 2,000 campers each Easter and Christmas Holidays. In the post World War I era of the 1920’s Cotton Tree continued to be a magnet for holidaying families. At first only a hardy few would venture from Brisbane – we shall see why – but as the motor car became the preferred mode of travel during the latter half of the 1920’s the romantic train-motor boat method of transport was gradually consigned to history.
As the Roaring 20’s decade of optimism got underway Maroochydore Swimming and Lifesaving Club was still the only Surf Club in the area. Maroochydore members assisted in the start-up of Coolum Beach Life Saving Club based around Yandina and North Arm. But that fledgling Club had to start up again later. Mooloolaba began in November 1922 and Alexandra Headland in January 1924.
In late December 1915 the Royal Life Saving Instructors had travelled to Maroochydore Beach by catching the train from Brisbane to Nambour, the cane tram from Nambour to Deepwater on the Maroochy River, and finally a motor launch to the Cotton Tree wharves, approximately where the Olympic Pool stands today.
These exhausting modes of transportation for Brisbane-based beach goers were barely a proposition for a weekend, especially when most people of the time worked on Saturday mornings. A day trip would have been well nigh impossible to attempt. It was not until the mid-1920’s that a trip by motor car to Maroochydore became a possibility. The Bruce Highway did not open until 1934.
What a trek it must have been for the good folk of Brisbane and Regional Queensland to attend the Queensland Amateur Swimming (QASA) Championship events at Maroochydore in 1917, 1920 and 1921. In those days swimming clubs from around Queensland applied to the QASA to stage just one Championship race. The venues were selected by ballot. What innovative thinking then, for our fledgling Swimming Club arm of the Surf Club, as a QASA affiliate, to apply to host these events:
1 January 1917 – 440 yards freestyle Championship of Queensland – the hot favourite was Frank Springfield of Brisbane, 1908 Olympian and one of the Royal Instructors who had helped to establish the Maroochydore Swimming and Life Saving Club a year earlier. Springfield had brought an entourage with him from Brisbane. Royal Life Saving President (and later Surf Life Saving Queensland’s inaugural President) MJ Kirwan MLA was in attendance. A crowd of 600 was said to have witnessed Springfield’s emphatic Championship win. The Championship took place in Maroochy River at Cotton Tree over a measured distance, with a rope finish.
Springfield’s group travelled by steam train to Nambour, cane tram to Deepwater and then by motor launch. They were there for the Christmas-New Year holiday period. Springfield was reported as saying that he hoped to catch up with his old friend Dally Messenger, the Rugby League legend, who was living permanently in the area at that time.
For Christmas 1918 there were two ‘rival’ motor launch services to the Maroochy Heads. Percy Evans transported his customers from Nambour to a place called Cedar Tree, near Rosemount, and thence by the vessel “Favourite” to the Cotton Tree wharves. Percy’s innovation for 1918 was to offer a motor car ride to Cedar Tree in place of the cane tram service. Meanwhile, Thomas O’Connor continued to offer the Moreton Sugar Mill cane tram service to Deepwater and thence by the “Hazledean” and “Alexandra” to Cotton Tree.
1 January 1920 – 100 yards Breast Stroke Championship of Queensland – again, the hot favourite was Queensland record-holder ES Collin from Brisbane. Collin prevailed and Maroochydore’s Bob Anderson placed third in the Championship.At this time two junior swimmers were emerging, Joe and Vic Suosaari. Maroochydore swimming and Lifesaving was on the verge of its first ‘Golden Era’.
By 1920 Percy Evans was operating 5 motor launches. People travelled by boat on the river system from as far away as Yandina. Maroochy River, Petrie Creek and Eudlo Creek were the highways to the Maroochy Heads.
1 January 1921 – 100 yards Freestyle Championship of Queensland, the last Championship at Cotton Tree – Queensland Champion J Gillan justified his favouritism with a fine win, but Maroochydore’s Joe Suosaari was a creditable fourth in the event. Other Maroochy swimmers on the support programme were Jack Suosaari and future Surf Race Champion of Queensland, Alan Petersen. After this round of Queensland Swimming Championships, Booroodabin Baths and later the new Valley Baths (1926) in Brisbane became their permanent home.
The Christmas-New Year holiday period of 1920-21 was reported by the Nambour Chronicle to be “the finest holiday on record”, with perfect weather and huge crowds of holidaymakers. Bob Anderson and Frank Lambourne performed the Lifesaving duties on the beach.
THERE WERE OTHER MODES OF TRANSPORT TO MAROOCHY HEADS: on Wednesday 1 February 1922 the first aircraft landed on Maroochydore Beach. Aboard the ‘Gauda’ biplane were 2 World War I flying aces, Captain Snell and Lieutenant Bird. They were curious. They flew over what was obviously a settlement, but it wasn’t marked on their navigation charts. They had two questions for the startled locals: ‘What is this place called?’ and ‘Where can we buy a packet of fags?’ Snell and Bird offered joyrides to the local civic leaders, Shire Chairman JT Lowe and Maroochydore Progress Association Chairman Mr F Goethes.
The mid to late 1920’s and beyond saw Maroochydore the dominant Royal Life Saving Club in Queensland. Axel and Joe Suosaari, dominant in Surf and Belt races, were also Australian Champions in swimming: Axel was twice the Australian 100 yards Freestyle Champion, while Joe was an Australian Breaststroke Champion. What a busy competition programme they pursued in swimming and stillwater Royal competition at Ithaca Baths in Paddington in Brisbane, as well as surf competition carnivals. All of it was only made possible by travelling long distances in motor cars and trains.
Pictured L-R; Joe Suosaari, Victor Suosaari, Harry French, Charlie Carter, Allen Paterson at Ithica Baths, Brisbane
Our Centenary History research told us that in December 1923 a prominent Nambour businessman and one of the founders of Maroochydore Life Saving Club, William Whalley, played a role in successful efforts to lower the record for the Nambour Post Office to Brisbane GPO motor car journey from 4 hours and 3 minutes to just under 3 hours. A party of motoring enthusiasts drove an Essex Tourer for this epic voyage. Still a decade before the opening of the Bruce Highway, one must conclude that the 1923 journey was a bumpy, dusty and circuitous one.
In January 1931 Maroochydore Club was among the Queensland ‘Surf’ and ‘Royal’ Clubs who banded together to form Surf Life Saving Queensland. This meant that by January 1932 the Maroochydore Club team had to travel from the North Coast down to Coolangatta on the Southern end of the Gold Coast to participate in the first-ever Queensland Surf Life Saving Championships. Considering that the highway from Brisbane to Coolangatta still featured several river crossings by punt, it was a long and slow journey of about 200 kilometres. For the record, Maroochydore SLSC were crowned the very first State Champion Club in January 1932,so the journey must not have been too onerous!