By Margaret Maccoll
Noosa living legend Lenore Grice was so dedicated to Noosa Surf Lifesaving Club that it didn’t faze her when she began women were excluded from the club.
It was 45 years ago when Lenore was introduced to Noosa SLSQ by a work colleague who had entered the Surf Girl Quest and asked her for help to fund-raise.
From that first weekend in 1972 and then a single mother with a one-year-old son, Luke, Lenore signed on to volunteer, travelling from Brisbane to Noosa Heads where until 1996 she “did the raffles” on a Friday night. She also ran the ‘chook raffle’ at The Reef hotel during ‘Sunday sessions’.
“I worked for the PMG in the telegram section. It was a fantastic job,” she said.
“We did weather reports, flood warnings, sports reports, media releases from politicians. We did announcements of births, deaths, engagements and weddings. We followed quite a few romances through with the ‘I love you telegrams’. It was the only way of communicating rapidly through writing.”
“We worked shift work. I worked 7am to 3pm Friday and headed up the coast, then I did a 2pm-10pm on Monday, so I wouldn’t have to leave for work until mid-morning.
“The surf club was hard to beat. When you have a marriage breakdown and a young baby, I thought my life was falling apart.
“It gave me confidence. It gave me a life and many life-long friends.
“It would have been so different if I hadn’t been introduced to the club.
“We had a fantastic life. Luke had a lot of male role models who were good to him.
“Surf lifesaving has been very good to me, that’s why I keep giving back.”
When Lenore first arrived in Noosa, there were 10 active members of the club, and females were not admitted.
“You could go to the upstairs bar, called the supporters area, but you weren’t allowed downstairs in the active side of the club,” she said.
“I was there with a one-year-old baby with the women whose husbands were doing patrols, and we would have to wait outside in the hot sun.”
Noosa was more progressive than most clubs, allowing women into the club in the late 70s, and in 1978 electing Lenore honorary secretary, a position she held until 1997.
Around the same time, she bought land at Sunshine Beach for $4500 but had trouble as a single mother obtaining a loan to build a house.
“At the time, John Jenkins was the president of the surf club. He just rounded up all the tradesmen at the club, tillers, electricians and painters and my first little house got built on leftovers from other jobs,” she said.
In 1980 Lenore began training members in first aid for the skills it contributed, to provide an activity for those not interested in more athletic pursuits of surf sports and for competition.
In 1986, the Noosa Heads first aid team won a gold medal in the Australian Championships. It was the first Australian gold medal for the club in its history.
In the 1980s, women won the right to become full members of surf lifesaving clubs, but they were still prohibited from competing in surf sport events.
Lenore said at that time many women took up first aid as it was an area that was open to them.
Over the past few decades, women have become adopted into all aspects of the SLSQ, and in 2015 the first female, Melissa King, was made the chief executive officer of Surf Lifesaving Australia.
Despite the long history of disparity between the sexes, Lenore said she had found the organisation to be a great leveller.
“You make lots of fantastic friends and you rub shoulders with all sorts,” she said.
“Just look at Tony Abbott. You could be on patrol with a former prime minister. Members can be barristers or the local garbage man. You can stand side by side with people who are amazing in their own field but you’re all the same on the beach and these people may become your friends.”
Lenore has won a string of awards during her 45 years of volunteering. Her awards include: Surf Lifesaving Australia 75th Anniversary medallion for outstanding service (1982), Life membership of Noosa Heads Surf Lifesaving Club (the club’s only female life member) (1990), Life membership of Maroochydore Surf Lifesaving Club (2015), Life membership of Surf Lifesaving Sunshine Coast branch (2003), Citation from World Lifesaving Association for valuable contribution to lifesaving (1997), International Lifesaving Federation Citation of merit for devotion to the cause of lifesaving in the aquatic environment (2002), Surf Lifesaving Queensland Coach of the Year (2005), Certificate of Merit Sunshine Coast Sports Hall of Fame (2013).
Among the many awards, including those too numerous to mention, there is one that stands out.
“I was inducted into the Surf Lifesaving Australia Hall of Fame in 2014. I was the 69th person inducted. It was a massive honour,” she said.
It was never the awards that attracted Lenore to Noosa SLSQ nor did she expect to linger so long.
“When I sit back and think about it, I think, wow,” she said.
“You don’t think you’ll be here for 45 years. It just becomes your social life and I’ve been very fortunate to have been involved with it.”
Noosa Heads SLSQ president Ross Fisher said the club would not exist without volunteers like Lenore.
“Volunteers are everything to the surf club,” he said
“Everyone working in the surf club, everyone competing is a volunteer.”
National Volunteer Week is held from 8-14 May to acknowledge the generous contribution of volunteers. Thousands of events including breakfasts, lunches, morning teas and award ceremonies will be held across the country to thank Australia’s six million volunteers.
