Henry Pike (Bowman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no more beautiful location within our Commonwealth than North Stradbroke Island. Every year it draws hundreds of thousands of Australians and tourists to summer adventures and whale-watching winters. It boasts, without any doubt, Australia's finest beaches, and keeping visitors and locals safe on those beaches are the tireless volunteers of the Point Lookout Surf Life Saving Club. It's an incredible organisation with a 75-year history, and I'm proud to be one of the club's patrons. The Point Lookout club faces many challenges, as most of their volunteers live on the mainland and the club doesn't enjoy the same ready-made catchment and support as Australia's many mainland surf lifesaving clubs.

Despite these challenges, 423 incredible volunteers so far have put in 5,726 volunteer hours this lifesaving season, with many more to come. They do countless acts of service and heroism year in and year out. It was at this point last year when Point Lookout volunteers had one of their finest episodes in their long history. On 25 February the Point Lookout team responded to a serious incident at North Gorge, where three swimmers got into some serious trouble on the rocks. Lifeguards Logan Specht and Keith Weinert acted courageously, taking action to pull an unconscious seven-year-old girl from the water, and other lifeguards assisted the other two swimmers. Once she was safely out of the water, the team administered CPR and saved her life. Thank you to the Point Lookout team for all they do.