William Henry a renowned English and European swimming champion in the 1880s and 90s approached the Royal Humane Society to develop a lifesaving programme.
[5] Lloyd gave the handbook to John Bond, a Warrant officer in Sydney's Medical Corps, and Captain Arthur Holmes.
On 31 July 1894 Bond and Holmes were instrumental in the establishment of the lifesaving society in Australia in the Sydney suburb of Waverley.
In September 1902 English born newspaper journalist, William Gocher, advertised that he was going to defy the authorities and swim at noon on three consecutive Sundays at Manly beach.
[10] Women were unable to join BSLSC and other lifesaving clubs around NSW as it was believed that they were not strong enough to operate the heavy equipment or manoeuvre themselves through the surf.
[11] Despite this two women, Annie Brown and Fanny Durack, established the Eastern Suburbs Ladies Amateur swimming club in 1916 (ESLASC).
[12] However, the issue of women becoming fully-fledged members of the surf club continued to be raised, and came to a head in 1977 with Lindsay Donnan.
A large number of people attended the meeting, and many had strong opinions as to why women should not be allowed to participate in surf lifesaving.
A lookout tower was also built in which a man would climb and wave flags around to signal to other surf lifesavers on the beach that someone was in trouble.
[2] In 1906 the first Australian purpose-built surfboat was invented by Bronte Surf lifesaving club member Walter Biddell.
It was a "catamaran type boat" with kapok-stuffed torpedo shaped tubes made of wood, tin and canvas.
In the early hours of Wednesday 13 February 1924, a 30-year-old women Nita Derritt, was badly attacked and mauled by 10 ft (3.0 m) shark at Bronte Beach.
Bronte lifesavers Eric Bennett and Jim Brown ran bravely into the water and rescued Nita.
On 8 June 1942, Bondi, Dover Heights, Bellevue Hill and Paddington were hit by shells fired by a Japanese Submarine.