When an 8-year-old girl was swept on her body board out of Newcastle’s Canoe Pool, onto the rocks and into the ocean during 14-foot dangerous swell in January, City of Newcastle lifeguard Mick Body sprang into action.
He moved quickly along the rock shelf and dived into the treacherous surf conditions, rescuing the young girl who was struggling to stay above the rough water. Mick, joined by another lifeguard (Luke Kelly), held onto her and navigated the large swell to return her to the safety of shore and her frantic family.
It is this display of courage, professionalism and experience that has earned the City of Newcastle Lifeguard an Australian Professional Ocean (APOLA) Lifeguard Association Meritorious Service Award, the highest accolade in the profession.
Mick, who has worked as a professional lifeguard for almost 20 years said he was honoured to receive the National Award and to be recognised for doing a job he loves and is passionate about.
“It was a surprise, but definitely an honour to be recognised with this award,” Mr Body said.
“During large swells waves engulf the Canoe Pool and then bounce off the side of the ocean baths creating a strong side wash which catches people by surprise. I’m pleased our rescue that day avoided an almost certain drowning.
“As lifeguards we have the best office in the world. Every day is new and that is exciting. The beauty of working on the beach is that we are ambassadors for our city and meet people from all over who come here to enjoy themselves.”
City of Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes praised Mick’s quick-thinking and lifesaving action.
“Our lifeguards provide an absolutely invaluable service to our community and regularly go beyond the call of duty to keep our community safe,” the Lord Mayor said.
“Without Mick’s bravery, advanced skills and knowledge of the beach, the outcome would have certainly been a tragic one.
“I’m proud that this incredible effort has been acknowledged on a national stage and I thank all of our lifeguards for their daily acts of kindness, bravery and courage.
“Each surf season City of Newcastle lifeguards save on average 100 lives and perform more than 15,000 preventative actions as more than one million people visit local beaches.
“Lifeguards are extremely proactive when it comes to taking preventative measures. This can include asking surfers to surf outside the flagged area to urging beach goers to swim between the red and yellow flags instead of near dangerous rips.
“When prevention fails, it can often take just split seconds for swimmers to find trouble and the same time for lifeguards to act.”
City of Newcastle has also been recognised by APOLA for continuing to deliver its Water Safety Education Program to local young people and the City’s multicultural community during COVID. The program is presented by City Newcastle’s lifeguards and teaches fundamental water safety skills and preventative measures.
The face-to-face program, which has run for 52 years, targets primary school students and works with the Multicultural Neighbourhood Centre and University of Newcastle Language Centre.
By developing an adapted COVID-safe program, City of Newcastle Lifeguards were still able to virtually reach 14,000 primary students in the Newcastle ensuring the community was able to receive vital information that may prevent drownings.
Month: June 2021
Safety upgrades on the way for Shortland local centre
A safer, more attractive local centre is on its way for Shortland, with City of Newcastle endorsing the Shortland Local Centre Public Domain and Traffic Plan at the Ordinary Council meeting this week.
The upgrade will improve safety on Sandgate Road with a new pedestrian refuge and reduced driver speeds via the installation of road cushions and implementation of a 40km/hr High Pedestrian Activity Area.
Heavy vehicle traffic will also be reduced in the area, with vehicles weighing over 10 tonnes being redirected to the Newcastle Inner City Bypass. Buses and heavy vehicles with business destinations within Shortland suburb will be unaffected.
Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said that pedestrian safety in Shortland is a key priority.
“During our earlier rounds of engagement with the community we heard that pedestrian safety at Sandgate Road was a significant concern,” Cr Nelmes said.
“These upgrades are designed to address the community’s concerns and also improve the experience for shoppers and visitors with new footpaths and street furniture also being delivered.”
Ward Four Councillor Jason Dunn affirmed the importance of these upgrades to the local community.
“It was pleasing to see so many community members have their say on the proposed changes, and I’m looking forward to seeing the upgrade be delivered as a result of the community’s feedback,” Councillor Dunn said.
Owner of Shortland’s My Community Pharmacy John Jones said the upgrade is fantastic for Shortland locals.
“It’s great to see Shortland being included in the upgrades being delivered across Newcastle,” Mr Jones said.
“The people of Shortland love supporting their local businesses so it’s a positive that it will be safer to get here with improved accessibility, making it a space we can all be really proud of.
Construction of the upgrades is scheduled to commence in the coming months.
The City has engaged a local artist to work with the community to develop a theme for a new mural installation. The mural project will be delivered in conjunction with construction and the subsequent opening of the upgraded local centre.
$24 million to fund innovative solutions from NSW small businesses
The NSW Government today launched a new initiative for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), which will receive $24 million in funding over its first two years.
The establishment of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program was the first Priority Action recommended in the Turning Ideas into Jobs – Accelerating Research & Development in NSW Action Plan, launched by Premier Gladys Berejiklian on 25 January 2021.
“The Action Plan stressed the increasing need to be proactive in supporting and attracting new businesses, especially in future industries that will sustain economic growth, productivity and employment,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“The SBIR program will provide competitive grants for SMEs to find and commercialise innovative solutions to NSW Government agencies for five well-defined problems”.
Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier Gabrielle Upton MP encouraged business to get involved.
“The program will tackle important challenges including assisting vision-impaired customers navigate the public transport network, increasing the resilience of regional and remote communications networks, quantify the number and extent of koalas in NSW, reduce contamination in wastewater and reducing PPE waste in the health system,” Ms Upton said.
“The SBIR program will not only support NSW SMEs to develop innovative solutions to government challenges, but the challenges have been specifically chosen to ensure that the successful SMEs can also sell their solutions to other customers in local and international markets.”
David Gonski AC, Chair of the Advisory Council of eminent leaders who guided the NSW Action Plan, welcomed the SBIR program launch.
“The impact of COVID-19 on economic growth and job creation makes the task to commercialise more R&D an urgent one,” Mr Gonski said.
“Rapidly translating ideas into new products and services will be integral to our recovery from the pandemic.”
The NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte said research and development was the key to delivering problem solving solutions.
“Like the Medical Devices Fund and Physical Sciences Fund, the SBIR program is an excellent example of the NSW Government’s commitment to leverage the capacity of SMEs’ NSW-based R&D to address the state’s most pressing problems and provide solutions which deliver a social, environmental, health or economic benefit,” Professor Durrant-Whyte said.
Further information including the guidelines and how to apply can be found here.
Progress on new Speedway racing ahead
Construction on the new Sydney International Speedway has passed the half way point and is on track to be operational by the start of the 2021 racing season.
Minister for Sport Natalie Ward and Minister for Transport Andrew Constance today inspected construction at the Eastern Creek site.
“This is an exciting and revolutionary addition to motorsport in Sydney which will bring in interstate and overseas competitors, crews and spectators, delivering a boost to our economy,” Mrs Ward said.
“Motorsport fans can look forward to more world-class motor racing in Western Sydney with the new speedway on track to be operational for the 2021 racing season.”
Mr Constance said the project was a win for the sport and for the local economy.
“The project is boosting investment with more than 325 workers onsite, 60 per cent of who are local to Greater Western Sydney. The project is also using the services of 58 local small to medium businesses, further spreading the benefits.”
Construction began in December last year and has included:
- Excavating 1 million tonnes of soil and rock at the site to support construction
- Constructing a 500m long reinforced retaining wall using almost a 1000 precast concrete panels and 40,000 tonnes of recycled sandstone from the WestConnex project
- Work on the construction of a 1,200,000 litre storm water retention tank. The tank’s capacity is the equivalent of 60 per cent of a standard Olympic-size swimming pool and is one of two water retention tanks being built for the project
- Construction of new dedicated car park for speedway competitors and an additional car park for dragway events also under construction.
The speedway circuit is also taking shape, while the grandstand, seating and corporate boxes will all be installed in the coming months.
Mrs Ward said investment in the new speedway comes on top of a $33 million upgrade of Sydney Motorsport Precinct which will enable the site to host some of the biggest motor racing events in Australia and provide a tourism and economic shot in the arm for Western Sydney.
“This is the first time in more than 20 years a Five Star speedway has been built in Australia with the last one being Perth Motorplex, which opened in 2000,” Mrs Ward said.
Greater Sydney Parklands is finalising the tender process to appoint the operator of the new speedway to prepare for the upcoming racing season.
The new speedway is expected to be operational by the start of the Speedway season in late September following the decommissioning of the previous speedway at Clyde, which was on land required to stable new metro trains for the mega Sydney Metro West project.
Call to action for NSW defence businesses
Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) are being encouraged to harness their future defence opportunities in NSW, with the launch of Adroita’s Partnering for Success white paper today at LAND FORCES 2021, the International Land Defence Exposition in Brisbane.
Veteran-owned defence and engineering consultancy, Adroita, is one of twenty-four NSW companies showcasing their products and services at the NSW stand. The launch of their Partnering for Success paper reinforces the need for companies to embrace change, leverage global markets and secure Defence opportunities for growth in NSW.
Minister for Jobs, Investment, Tourism and Western Sydney, Stuart Ayres, said the expo was an excellent opportunity for SMEs to connect with Government and senior partners in the defence industry.
“We want to bring together the Australian Defence Primes, SMEs and researchers to grow and strengthen our defence industry at every level and in doing so generate jobs for NSW,” Mr Ayres said.
Partnering for Success outlines the need for businesses to secure opportunities in Defence’s priority areas, such as shipbuilding, radar capability, information warfare, surveillance and intelligence, small arms, aerospace maintenance and complex systems integration.
Adroita CEO Sarah Pavillard said their core purpose was engineering success for sovereign capability.
“SMEs are the engine room of the Australian and the NSW economy, and there is much latent potential sitting in industry right now that is applicable to Defence – it just needs to be unlocked, and that can only occur through the right partnerships.”
Mr Ayres said the Government, through Investment NSW, was also providing $1 million to the Defence Innovation Network to seed collaborative projects between Defence Innovation Network universities and NSW SMEs that will lead to greater commercialisation.
LAND FORCES 2021 co-exhibitor DroneShield has previously received seed funding that supported their development of optical drone detection using deep learning and convolutional neural networks with the University of Technology Sydney.
DroneShield CEO Oleg Vornik said the project used recent improvements in computer vision, image processing and deep learning to develop an artificial intelligence based real-time optical drone detection system.
“The developed technology has been integrated into DroneShield’s counter-drone solutions and deployed at several high-profile customer sites around the world to detect, identify and track drones up to several kilometres away with the optical/thermal sensors.”
Further details about Investment NSW are available at www.investment.nsw.gov.au, and for Defence NSW at www.defence.nsw.gov.au.