Marching forward, looking back

JOEL RITCHIE

AS THE Australian lifesaving movement celebrates 100 years of protecting Australia’s beaches, a group of Shellharbour Surf Club members are making a enthusiastic nod to its past.

Fifteen women from Shellharbour Surf Life Saving Club (SLSC) have formed a march-past team under the tutelage of club stalwart Dick Plummer.

They are one of only two march past crews in the South Coast Branch at the moment; Mollymook fields the other.

“We’re just trying to keep march past alive; it’s a traditional thing, not a modern thing,” crew publicity officer Maree Love said.

The group formed when a group of parents had taken their children, Shellharbour nippers, away to a carnival in 2006.

They marched at a few carnivals in 2006-07 where they achieved modest results.

Fast forward to the recent Centenary Interstate Championships at Bondi, where the Shellharbour crew finished a credible 10th competing against more experienced squads.

Later in the season they will march in the Sydney competition and other carnivals at Queenscliff, Freshwater and Coogee.

“We’re just a group of mums of current and former Shellharbour juniors,” Maree said.

“We’re very sociable and having a ton of fun and showing some pride.”

Although fun is the name of the game, the Shellharbour crew trains twice a week in preparation for their stoushes with the heavyweights of march past.

Competing in one of surf lifesaving’s most traditional events isn’t the group’s only link to the past – they wear the very same uniforms Mr Plummer and his teams did when they competing the hey day of march past in the 1960s.

“We had to adjust them to fit the ladies,” crew publicity officer Maree Love said.

In march past a squad of twelve marches around a rectangular area. Their task is to stay in time while judges mark nine criteria.