SALUTE TO FEARLESS WATERMAN
HUNDREDS of people including lifesavers and surfers gathered to farewell legendary Gold Coast lifeguard John Cunningham at an emotional beachside service.
Mr Cunningham, who acted as former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s personal lifeguard and was decorated for one of Queensland’s most daring surf rescues, died last month, aged 89, following a long illness.
Renowned as a fearless “waterman”, he served as the Gold Coast’s chief lifeguard for decades before retiring in 1994.
His Gold Coast City Council lifeguard comrades, surfers and other community members held a celebration of Mr Cunningham’s life at his beloved Coolangatta Beach.
The service, held in front of the John Cunningham Lifeguard Centre named in his honour, featured a “paddle out” – a traditional surfers’ farewell where mourners on boards formed a circle off the beach, scattered Mr Cunningham’s
ashes as well as flowers into the ocean and splashed the water in a final salute.
A surf boat crew also took part in the moving ceremony, raising their oars in a tribute to the Gold Coast great.
Mr Cunningham carved out a decorated career as a Gold Coast lifeguard, receiving the prestigious Meritorious Award in Bronze for a daring rescue at Coolangatta during Cyclone
Dinah in 1967. After a surfer was swept away in huge seas, two local lifesavers set out to rescue him, but they too floundered in the ferocious five-metre swells, before Mr Cunningham, who was offduty, bravely entered the water and reached the lifesavers as they clung to a shark net off the coast.
He gave his rescue board to the exhausted lifesavers
before turning around and guiding them back to shore to a hero’s ovation.
However, he later recalled feeling uncomfortable with the “hero” tag.
“I didn’t look at myself as a hero,” he said. “I got a lot of pats on the back, but I wasn’t interested in any of that.”
Mr Cunningham also served as Whitlam’s personal lifeguard during Queensland visits.