Fingal’s bold bid
Tragic losses a heavy burden for community
THE sirens returned to Fingal this week, the sirens that Joel Slabb and his neighbours would give anything to never hear again but know they almost certainly will.
“Whenever you see any sort of ambulance or police car heading down the road, you immediately think it must be another one,” the keen surfer said of the frantic activity that accompanied this week’s drowning of Japanese backpacker Tomoe Ogisu, the fourth such tragedy at Fingal Head in less than three years.
“It’s the way the water runs along the headland and the (sand on the) bottom is always changing. Once you fall off that gutter near the rocks, you’re in deep water.
“That’s where we see a lot of people get into trouble. The water hits the headland and it just pushes it all out to sea.
“It’s a beautiful beach but it’s also a dangerous one.”
So dangerous that Slabb and his small community are going to unique – and inspiring – lengths to protect unwitting visitors from the aquatic playground they hold so dear.
Having founded Juraki Surf Culture two years ago to teach local indigenous kids about the ocean and promote the fun they can have in it, those youngsters are now embracing the challenge of passing their knowledge on to others.
“We can’t just leave it to the lifesavers,” Slabb said of protecting potential victims from the dangers of Dreamtime Beach, the unpatrolled and increasingly lethal stretch of sand to the south of Fingal headland.
“It’s a community issue and we (the local indigenous people) are also caretakers of the land. Our ancestors lived here for years so it’s something we take personally. We want to make it safe for everyone.
“We’re not only training our kids at an early age that they need to respect the ocean regardless of whether it’s 2ft or 10ft, but that if they see people who don’t have that knowledge, share what you know with them. Warn them not to swim there. Move them out of rips.
“About a year ago we saved six kids and adults from a rip and it wouldn’t have been five minutes later that another group came down the track and three kids jumped straight in the same rip. It looked good to them but our kids paddled