Royal Life Saving Society Australia

The Royal Life Saving Society of Australia (RLSSA) has been serving Australia for over 120 years and is the leading water safety, swimming and lifesaving education organisation in Australia. It is active all over Australia. Its branches, members, volunteers, trainers and lifesavers are found in almost all communities. RLSSA provides courses in water safety, lifesaving and resuscitation.

The Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) was founded at its inaugural meeting in England on 3 January 1891 to combat a high drowning toll. The first Australian Branch was formed in Sydney in 1894 (New South Wales Branch) and the movement soon spread to all States. In July 1938, during a conference in Melbourne, it was unanimously decided that the Surf Life Saving Association, now known as Surf Life Saving Australia, control all surf beaches around Australia, and that the RLSSA control all bays, inlets, rivers, pools, etc.

In subsequent years the Society focused its attention on water safety education and rescue training for inland areas, and particularly for school children. In the immediate pre and post Second World War era the Bronze Medallion was included in many secondary school physical education programs.

After trialing a program in a number of States and Territories, the Society launched the "Swim and Survive" program in 1982. The program was so well structured and in demand from teachers, it resulted in over 1 million awards being taken in just two years.

In addition to these developments, The Royal Life Saving Society Australia developed a world-class lifeguarding program, particularly for pools, during the early 1990s. The Pool Lifeguard Program is now widely recognised as the qualification for those supervising others in and around inland waters.

Over one million Australian's undertake a Royal Life Saving course or program every year. Over five million Australians have achieved their Bronze Medallion since its inception, and over 10 million have learnt their essential water safety skills through Swim and Survive.

Royal Life Saving is Australia’s largest provider of water safety education. Its programs are delivered in schools, pools and community centres daily. They are designed to build awareness of dangers in aquatic environments and to arm the community with lifesaving skills used in both prevention and rescue.

The key education programs include:

RLSSA's key training programs include;

Royal Life Saving has a proud history of developing health promotion programs targeting groups such as:

prevents children from drowning through the promotion of four simple messages:

Ensuring the development of safety guidelines and risk management systems for all aquatic environments is essential in supporting a water safe community.

RLSSA's key aquatic risk management activities include:

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