“I just didn't think I was going to make it really. That was as scared as I've ever been in my whole life." – Charlotte Baker
It was late December 2024, and 13-year-old Tom Walsh was at unpatrolled Beach 5 in Venus Bay when he spotted two people in trouble out in the water. The young teenager had just completed his Surf Rescue Certificate (SRC) the month prior, and realising what a perilous situation the two swimmers were in, he used his training to leap into action.
Racing to the new Public Rescue Equipment (PRE) station that had been installed on Beach 5 just two weeks earlier, he pressed the call button on the unit, connecting to Triple Zero (000).
Charlotte's father David was on the beach, and the frantic father spoke to the Triple Zero call-taker while Tom grabbed the rescue tube from the PRE station and raced back down the beach. The distressed teenagers had swallowed a lot of water, and Tom swum out to them and gave them the rescue tube from the PRE station, the vital piece of equipment keeping them afloat as he helped them out of the rip and brought them back to the beach.
“I have never before experienced such an overwhelming sense of relief as when Tom emerged from the surf with my Charlotte,” David recalled of the moment he knew the teenagers’ lives had been saved after living through the most terrifying situation a father could go through.
Meanwhile, the call for action had also come through to Venus Bay SLSC, and members raced to help, with two off-duty paramedics, who are also members, attending to the teenagers.
“As Tom sat down exhausted after the rescue, he was surrounded within minutes by a mass of fellow club member rescuers who had responded from the club rooms 4km away,” David recalls. “A few members tended to the girls and made sure they were physically ok before taking them back to the club rooms for hot showers and observation,” David explained of the incredible response and care provided by Venus Bay SLSC members.
After the rescue, a grateful Charlotte said she is thankful to be alive.
“I just didn’t think I was going to make it really. That was as scared as I've ever been in my whole life. I just gave up and I was just floating, just screaming, like me and my friend were screaming for our life,” she said as she described the terrifying moments out in the ocean, helpless against the power of the rip.
"That was so brave of him. Putting himself in harm's way to save me and my friend, that is so incredible, and I thank him for it so much," Charlotte said gratefully.
Former President of Venus Bay SLSC and a volunteer Director for Life Saving Victoria, Paul Hoffman stresses the importance of the lifesaving training volunteer surf lifesavers like Tom undergo, to ensure they are equipped with the skills and confidence to be rescue ready. For example, part of training for the Surf Rescue Certificate and Bronze Medallion qualifications includes using a tube to undertake a rescue, an essential piece of equipment that assisted Tom in the rescue of Charlotte and her friend that day at Venus Bay.
Equipment plays a vital role in rescues such as this one, and the PRE stations were launched at Venus Bay on 22 December, aimed at improving safety on Victoria's volatile coastline.
Paul, who was a driving force behind the instalment of the PRE stations, said this was the second time they had been used in Venus Bay since their launch, the first time on Christmas Day.
“Without the provision of the PRE equipment at Venus Bay Beach 5, it is entirely possible that we would have been facing a catastrophic alternative outcome to the one we celebrated that day,” David said.
“It became evident to me that the confluence of a well-trained, courageous off-duty surf lifesaver with immediate access to equipment he had been trained in, backed up with an alerting system to get the rest of the responders on the way, meant our girls did not drown. The alternative outcome is not one I want to consider,” he said.