

Lifeguard facts and history
- City of Gold Coast employs the largest professional lifeguard service in Australia, which is responsible for the surveillance of the region's 60 kilometre coastal strip.
- The City'sĀ lifeguard service has thirty-seven (39) permanent staff and 140 seasonal staff (mostly from the ranks of Surf Life Saving Association volunteers).
- The lifeguards patrol 26 beaches year round and 42 beaches during the holiday season.
- The first professional lifeguard was employed in 1935 at Main Beach by the City Council.
- The Chief Lifeguard, Warren Young, was appointed in 1975 after commencing work as a lifeguard at Burleigh in 1973.
- The lifeguard service has a Beach Safety Education Program for local primary schools and English language students. Larry the Lifeguard is the mascot for the lifeguard service.
- The lifeguard service was the first in Australia to adopt a formal surveillance tower plan along the coastal strip, initiated in 1989.
- The service pioneered the use of jet skis in Australia and was the first lifeguard service to have staff trained in the use of defibrillators.
- The service was the first in Australia to be approved as a quality endorsed company, awarded the five ticks Quality System certificate in April 2002.
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