Surf clubs look to bricks and mortar for a solid future
Australia’s historic surf lifesaving clubs are constantly under threat from some of the most corrosive saltwater environments on Earth.
Now after decades of being patched up with often cheaper materials a push is on to rebuild many of the older crumbling clubhouses in more traditional, longer-lasting brick, concrete and glass.
It’s an expensive exercise, especially for smaller clubs that struggle to raise money for these often multi-million-dollar projects, even after government funding.
Donna Wishart of Surf Life Saving NSW said funds were always a problem, despite a doubling of the Surf Club Facilities Grant announced by the NSW Premier last year.
“There are a lot of tired clubs around but replacing them can be very expensive.”
Artist’s impression of the new Woolgoolga Surf Life Saving Club.
Up and down the NSW coast, where many of the oldest clubs operate, a number are now being repaired or replaced, including most of the clubs on the Central Coast around Gosford.
In Sydney’s south, the Cronulla Surf Life Saving Club has had its development application approved for the partial demolition, alterations and additions to the existing 75-year-old club, with the extensive use of brick.
More recently, the Woolgoolga Surf Life Saving Club near Coffs Harbour received the go-ahead last year to build a new clubhouse, and is just waiting to raise the funds.
“It’s going to be a mainly brick construction because it’s within 100 metres of the sea so it has to be durable,” said architect Frank Scahill. “We don’t want to be replacing it within five years, and brick is pretty low maintenance!”
The new North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club. Photo: Supplied
Many older clubs that are now in a state of decay had fibro and timber exteriors in the 1970s and 1980s, and many of these are now returning to the traditional brick used in the first club houses, said Elizabeth McIntyre, chief executive of Think Brick, an organisation that represents brick and paver manufacturers.
“Brick is durable, low-cost and is designed to resist the penetration of water and insulate the building from rough winds and temperature changes, so it manages to stay cool inside,” she said. “It’s also environmentally sustainable. Apart from withstanding environmental changes, masonry structures are highly recyclable and low-maintenance.”
One of these newly renovated brick clubhouses, at the Kempsey Crescent Head Surf Life Saving Club on the mid-north coast of NSW, has won a clutch of awards.
The $2.4 million, two-storey premises featuring an elaborate pattern of polychromatic glazed bricks, takes the place of the old rundown 1970s clubhouse.
Detail of the Kempsey Crescent Head SLSC, showing the coloured bricks. Photo: Supplied
“Resilience was the main criteria, as well as overall cost,” said Neeson Murcutt Architects’ Rachel Neeson of the bricks used in the new building, for which she won the Australian Institute of Architects’ NSW Sulman Medal of Public Architecture, a national AIA commendation and accolades in the Think Brick Awards.
“Brick was simply appropriate in this location, and it was a cultural thing too. On this site, it felt like the right material response. The original club had concrete cancer and, having been going to the area for several years with my late husband and children, we’d been seeing it falling apart for a long time. This one should last a long, long time!”
The new North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club, made mostly of concrete and glass, and covered with ceramic tiles, also replaced a badly dilapidated building.
Designed by Durbach Block Jaggers, together with club member Peter Colquhoun, it scored a commendation for public architecture in the AIA’s national awards in 2014, with the jury stating that it, ‘celebrates the understated heroism of the club’s activities and the hedonism of Bondi life.’
There are currently 311 affiliated surf life saving clubs in Australia, with 168,823 members, making Surf Life Saving Australia the largest volunteer movement of its kind in the world.
The new clubhouse at Karrawa Surf Club, on the Gold Coast, cost $17 million to build. Photo: Supplied
For more than 110 years these clubs have been run by not-for-profit community groups that rely on donations, fundraising, commercial operations they undertake themselves, corporate sponsorship and government grants.
In Queensland, the clubs tend to be newer and more modern, particularly around the Gold Coast, with many having large licensed venues on site to help them raise money.
The $17 million Kurrawa Surf Club at Broadbeach, which opened in December last year to replace the old one, for instance, has become the best case study for a replacement, said president Mark Forbes. “It’s built with brick and block and state-of-the-art fittings and finishes.
“It’s magnificent in terms of surf life saving clubs; it’s the Taj Mahal of clubs. It’s probably the best business case study there is for replacing an old club, built out of blocks and off the back of running chook raffles …”
Carrum Surf Life Saving Club, in Victoria. Photo: Supplied
Craig Williams, of Surf Life Saving Queensland, said Queensland tended to have newer clubs than in other states. “We don’t have the kind of historic clubs that NSW has, so many haven’t yet needed as many major renovations.”
In Victoria, recently completed clubhouses include the new $1.57 million Carrum Surf Life Saving Club, which had been operating out of a shipping container after a storm tore down one of its walls. Built mostly of concrete and timber cladding, one of its main features was a protective erosion wall funded by the Victorian State Government. “This part of the Victorian coastline had been a bit neglected for a while,” said president Ben Rooks.
Other clubs finished in the last few years include those at St Kilda, Mordialloc, Fairhaven, Dromana and Mt Martha. In addition, redevelopment works are underway at the Portsea Surf Life Saving Club, Jan Juc Surf Life Saving Club and the South Melbourne Life Saving Club.
Works are all scheduled to start soon at clubs at Cape Paterson, Ocean Grove, Edithvale, Anglesea, Brighton and Port Lonsdale.
“Life Saving Victoria works on the basis of a community/government partnership model, where clubs use seed funding from government and then seek further community funding for their club development projects,” said spokesperson Gemma Rutland.
In Western Australia, many of the clubs were built of brick in the first place, and had lasted well, said Think Brick’s Ms McIntyre. “That’s our big heartland, and they’ve built most of their clubs with brick so we haven’t seen a big rebuilding program there. It hasn’t been necessary.”
Paint company Dulux has entered the fray too, offering to help repaint surf clubs in its special Weathershield paint.
