‘I didn’t join to be a sausage sizzler’
Vital marine rescue boat upgrade on way ... one BBQ at a time
FED-UP members of a Gold Coast volunteer marine rescue are tiring of sausage sizzles, saying they need to sell several hundred thousand snags to fund a new $460,000 boat.
Volunteer Marine Rescue (VMR) Currumbin president Mike Brooks said he needed $460,000 to replace a 17year-old RIB (rigid inflatable boat) and to buy a new vessel critical for shallow water rescue operations over the sandclogged Currumbin bar.
“State government funding is stretched thin between Queensland VMRs, and our dedicated members are frustrated at being stuck on dry land fundraising,” Mr Brooks said.
“Pretty much our profit on a sausage is $2. Work that out,” the zone and state councillor said.
“I have a lot of people who joined up as a crew member or radio operator and they help wherever they can.
“But we have a sausage sizzle each week to make ends meet and they’re openly saying ‘hey, I didn’t join up to be a sausage sizzler’.
“We’ve got an unfinanced vessel replacement program. There’s no money to replace our vessels. We’re (VMR) given a couple of million a year across 26 squadrons.
“We have running costs, fuel, maintenance, electricity. We even buy our own uniforms.”
Of the desired new boat, he said: “It’s a damn good vessel, but an old vessel. We need $300,000-400,000 to buy a new boat. The challenge is we get called sometimes and can’t respond because of the nature of the bar.
“When the tide is out and it’s silted up we can’t get our boat out, which is why we want a second boat that has a lot better shallow water capability.
“The boat we’re looking at is about $460,000.”
The funding struggles revealed by VMR Currumbin comes after the VMR Association Queensland warned in June the service could not replace or repair its ageing fleet.
Queensland general manager Keith Williams said at the time: “Unless significant funding is found soon, services provided will either finish or at the very least be severely restricted to just a small number of operational locations.
“As of 2020 the average age of a VMR vessel is 9.8 years against a useful lifespan of 15 years. We can no longer continue such a large impost on volunteers to raise funds.
“We can no longer purchase $600,000 rescue craft by selling sausages. To date VMR bases have raised up to 85 per cent of their own operating capital.”
A VMR Southport spokesman said in June the funding woes concerned northern VMRs, where membership numbers were lower, and not the Gold Coast.
Queensland VMR president Dr Graham Kingston said recent increases in state funding were not enough.
“(Primary rescue vessels) can cost from $600,000 to up to $1m, and at the moment we only get $100,000 from state government over a 10-year period to support that,” he said.
Mr Brooks agreed with the association’s sentiments and said he had been trying to strike a balance between raising money for new gear and keeping volunteers on board.
Mr Brooks backed the government’s ongoing VMR Blue Water Review.
WE’VE GOT AN UNFINANCED VESSEL REPLACEMENT PROGRAM. THERE’S NO MONEY TO REPLACE OUR VESSELS. MIKE BROOKS