1963 - present

Susan Murray become one of Australia’s first female lifesavers in 1980 when she passed her Bronze Medallion with her three teammates – but that was only one of her achievements.

“I’d always swum at Bondi Icebergs since the age of five. We used to do [Royal Life Saving Society courses] there, which was lifesaving for girls but in still water, ocean pools. I’d been in a [Rescue and Resuscitation team] that competed at state level age 14 or 15. At that time girls were just starting to do … things that you’d never been allowed to do before. I was in one of the first girls’ touch football teams and girls were starting to surf as well. And because I had the swimming and Royal Life background, doing my Bronze seemed like a challenge, something to have a go at.”

Murray said there was opposition within the Bondi Surf Club to the female presence from the start. The situation was made worse because the men had to give up a card room to provide space for women in the clubhouse.

“There were a few guys like Keith and Kieran Speed – maybe half a dozen – who were really keen to have us join. Some were encouraging, but for the most part the guys were pretty resistant to the change, we weren’t welcome. It was a novelty but …”

In 2020, female members of surf clubs across the country saluted the pioneering women of the 1980s for forging the way to equal footing within the surf lifesaving movement just 40 years ago.

Courtesy Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving Club.