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Season ends for Cable Beach lifeguards

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Jakeb WaddellBroome Advertiser

They may be lucky enough to have one of the most beautiful offices on the planet but statistics from this patrol season reveal the true scope of a Cable Beach lifeguard’s job.

Surf Life Saving WA’s men and women in red and yellow wrapped up in Broome for another year on Sunday, closing the curtain on another busy tourist period and marking the start of the wet season.

According to statistics complied by SLSWA, there were 10 rescues this patrol period, zero major first-aid incidents, 171 minor, and 2083 preventative actions.

SLSWA operations officer Mick Owens said the higher-than-average preventative actions, which included warning swimmers of hazards, was the reason behind there were no major first-aid occurrences.

Mr Owens said there was no dangerous or outrageous behaviour by the public during the season.

“Generally the Broome population and visitors are pretty good in that they always listen to the lifeguards and it makes the job much easier,” he said.

“There are others who do a lot of education in that space too. For example, hotels who brief tourists on potential dangers of the beach.”

The statistics also showed that there were nine forced closures for the season, including four relating to shark sightings, three for crocodiles, one for an irukandji sting and once for rough conditions.

A total of six SLSWA lifeguards patrolled Cable Beach throughout the season, between Monday and Saturday from March 30 until October 31.

Broome Surf Life Saving Club volunteers were responsible for running the Sunday patrols.

Shire of Broome sport and recreation manager Casey Zepnick encouraged residents to stay safe at the popular spot during the wet season.

“Cable Beach will now be unsupervised ... and people who continue to swim are urged to take heed of any warnings, never swim alone, to always respect the ocean and to stay in comfortable depth,” he said.

The beach will remain unsupervised until lifeguards return in April next year.

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