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BEHIND THE NAME, MOANA Situated
some 35 km’s south of Adelaide on the Fleurieu Peninsula lies a stretch
of sandy beach. THE CLUB The
Moana Life Saving Club was formed in January 1938, and patrolled Moana
Beach until 1952 under the auspices of the Royal Life Saving Society of
South Australia. The
club went into recess during the war years, but in 1945 was back on the
beach, only with one piece of patrol equipment, a borrowed surf reel. In
September 1952, the Moana Surf Life Saving Club was formed and affiliated
with Henley and Grange Clubs to form the South Australian State Centre,
which in turn affiliated with the Surf Life Saving Association of
Australia. The majority of the members were also active players for the
West Torrens Football Club; hence the Royal Blue and Gold colours were
selected. On our competition caps, two parallel gold stripes are there to
represent tyres tracks on our sandy beach. Operating
out of an old Bathing Shed just south of our present location, the club
grew up in strength, under the guidance of President Mr. Colin Clements.
In the summer of 1956-57 the present clubhouse was built, due to
dedication and tireless efforts of club members. In 1966, an annex was
added on to the northern side of the building, funded with money raised by
the Ladies Auxiliary. Our
first surf boat was named “Braemar”, which was a double ender bought
from N.S.W. Later on in 1957, we purchased the “Good Samaratan” from
South Cronulla S.L.S.C. Several years later, the “Nashwauk” arrived
(duly named after a shipwreck on our beach). The junior crew had won both
State and South Coast titles in 1966-7,1967-8. Once this boat had served
it’s purpose, it was donated to the City of Chicago, USA.
“Nashwauk II” the proud workmanship of Mr. A.H Wallace was purchased
and delivered in 1971, the last wooden surfboat to be made in South
Australia. In
the mid – late 60’s, early 70’s methods of resuscitation, rescue
techniques and equipment were being developed, tried and improved, so did
Moana keeping up with changes, enter our first I.R.B. and 4WD. In 1979-80,
the new generation of life saving has begun, for Moana. Moana
Beach has successfully hosted 3 Australian National Titles in 1961, 1982
and 1986, assisted with manpower from our neighbour clubs, several State
Senior and Junior Titles as well as normal carnivals. The
fortunes of Moana ebbed and flowed during the 60’s and 70’s, by the
late 70’s the club was beginning to drift. Fortunately with the
introduction of females into surf life saving, a junior division being
established, a renewed interest had developed and the club hasn’t looked
back since. Quote
made by member in 1970, “ the reason we do not compete at carnivals was
through lack of members, club has only 10 active patrolling personnel, who
are required on our beach as their number one priority”. Today’s
fortunes are now totally different, membership has escalated, we train and
compete in all areas of surf life saving and we still patrol the beach
successfully without loss of life. SPECIAL ITEMS OF INTEREST The Moana S.L.S.C. has two items of special interests kindly donated by the Late Chief Patron Mr. Jim Ingoldby DUKE KAHANAMOKU’S Surfboard I
have been led to believe that both the late Duke and Jim Ingoldby were
best of life long friends who met at a surf carnival in N.S.W. in 1915. On
leaving Australia, he gave a board to Jim for his use, and has since been
donated to the Moana S.L.S.C. 1915
was a special year, because this was when a famous Hawaiian Olympian, Duke
Kahanamoku arrived on Australian soil and introduced the Hawaiian form of
surfboard riding at Freshwater Beach.
He saw good surf running so he decided to have a 9-foot long board
made by a Sydney timber yard. At
the time he was staying at Freshwater and was asked to stage a
demonstration of his skills to the local crowds and lifesavers
who lined the beach for a local surf carnival. He eventually did.
There was a boat and a crew waiting to take him out beyond the break. They
had know idea of how he intended getting this massive hunk of floating
wood out to sea. He declined the offer, laid on the board and paddled it
out. The
good surf on the day allowed Duke to angle-ride, standing up across the
bay, all he was doing was riding the same way he would back in Hawaii. Those
who later got into the boardriding craze, even after seeing the duke’s
exhibition, rode the heavy 40 or 50 pound boards straight in, as they had
no idea of turning a solid board around in the surf, until years later. Duke also introduced the interests of surfing on the Californian and Atlantic coast beaches of the U.S. DOROTHY
H.STERLING’S Steeringwheel Once
seen resting beneath a pergola at McLaren Vale, but has now been donated
to Moana S.L.S.C. The
six masted schooner was built in 1920 in Portland, Oregon, USA The wooden
hulled vessel of 2526 gross tons measured 81.4m in length, 15.3m breadth,
7.7m depth. Originally named Oregon
Pine. The vessel’s name was changed in 1927 when it was purchased by Captain Sterling who decided to change the name to Dorothy H.Sterling after his wife. The
vessel arrived in Port Adelaide in 1929 loaded with more than two million
feet of lumber from the United States. After discharging it’s cargo the
vessel lay idle – a victim of the Great Depression. The
owners had made no provision for wages and other necessities and so the
captain and crew were forced to abandon the schooner. In an effort to
recoup harbour costs, it was decided to sell the boat, the only bidder
being the local shipbeaker, subsequently it was cut up and sold in useful
ways. Today the remains are still visible in the North arm grave-yard at Port Adelaide. Moana’s
Migrant Ship NASHWAUK The beach at Moana, always crowed with surfers and swimmers on summer days, is the scene of a major shipwreck. In 1855, the sailing ship Nashwauk was wrecked at the mouth of Pedler’s Creek, becoming a total loss. The vessel was a three-masted full rigged ship of 760 tons built in Nova Scotia during 1853. She left Liverpool on February 13,1855 carrying 300 Irish migrants and general cargo bound for Adelaide, South Australia. During the early hours of Sunday, May 13, the ship was tacking up St.Vincent Gulf in variable winds, after making it’s way through Investigator Strait. Just before dawn, the Nashwauk went aground at Moana after her lookouts mistook the low sandy coast for a cloud in the darkness. By dawn she was abandoned as a total wreck. The ship’s passengers and crew were all landed and taken to Adelaide, but storms soon destroyed the Nashwauk. Before serious salvage work could be carried out. Her cargo and remains were quickly buried under drift sand which ebbs and flows along the coast. For most of the time, the wreck is under 1.5m-2m of sand. There are two visible reminders of the disaster today. An anchor from the ship has been erected as a memorial in the caravan park, and 50m offshore, just South of the Moana S.L.S.C. clubrooms a fragment of one of the ship’s mast rests on the bottom. MOANA 1961 AUSTRALIAN
CHAMPIONSHIPS. Extract
taken from GLADIATORS OF THE SURF 1984 They
were still talking about Merewether 20 years later at Maroochydore but in
1960-61 it was back to calmer waters in South Australia. When
the National Council decided to stage these championships at Moana Beach
(the same site in following years) on Saturday and Sunday, 11 and 12 March
1961, there were, according to the late Tom Meagher (writer in the Bondi
Surfer), “the usual number of stodgy old critics who advanced a
great number of reasons why this was a very unwise decision. However, the
young, active and virile State Centre decided to show the critics how much
they really did not know. The
Adelaide
News of that time quoted Bob Brydon, the Carnival Referee, as
saying it was the best organised in 53 years history, adding, “like our
president, Judge Adrian Curlewis, I am going away happy with the whole
Moana carnival.” The
Advertiser
said a crowd estimated at nearly 80,000 watched the carnival along
one and half miles of beach and the 56 hectare paddock had 30,000 cars
parked there. Fourteen police controlled the crowd. Three
clubs, Moana, Henley and Christies Beach formed the organising committee
and the Carnival Organiser was Chook Fielder. For
this season there were two name changes- the Interstate Championships
became the Australian National Championships and the Australian
Championships the National Inter-club Championships. It was certainly an event to remember, they were conducted in one of the flattest surfs ever seen at Australian Championships and this certainly helped the swimmers. MOANA 1982 75
TH. ANNIVERSARY OF LIFE SAVING. AUSTRALIAN
CHAMPIONSHIPS The
1981-82 Australian Championships at Moana could be best described as very
competitive; the crowds clapped politely but without the roar of
Maroochydore in 1980 or Wanda in 1981. Even
when the finale song, “The Carnival is Over” was played there were few
people who joined in the singing. There was little of the sentimentality
of some of the previous years, but maybe the weather had something to do
with that. Over
the three days- 26,27 and 28 March- the weather seemed to change four
seasons a day and the constant wind, interspersed with the sun and some
rain, dampened spirits. Moana
had been the site of the 1961 championships and among the people who were
again in 1982 were some of the stars of the previous carnival. It
must have had great memories for Jon Donohoe who was working on the ABC
telecast with Norman May. He had won the Senior Surf Championships here in
1961, beating Barry Rogers, of Maroubra. Barry also was back at Moana
swimming in the Veterans. Hayden
Kenny, of Alexandra Headland, was there again to help his son, Grant, make
history again in the Senior Ironman, but also must have been thinking back
to 1961when he was second in the Senior Belt. Co-hosts
were Moana, Port Noarlunga, South Port and Christies Beach clubs, with the
main sponsors being Gadsen, Pepsi, the Rigby Group, Speedo, Total
and Ansett. The
beach itself at Moana was ideal for an interstate carnival and this was
evident in the grand parade of march past teams on the Sunday. The
surf was a different matter, changing dramatically over the three days;
but this was for the better because it bought a new competitive edge into
the contests which many had expected would be held in flat conditions. Everybody
expected the usual flat surf, and it was there on the Thursday and most of
the first day when the Interstate Carnival was being held. But the weather
changed and the sea was unpredictable, sometimes choppy and at other times
with long runs to the buoys. One
official from Queensland, said “ he had never seen the weather change
seasons four times in one day”, as he walked off the beach with frozen
feet.
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