New funding for Tweed Marine Rescue

TWEED Shire Council has funded Marine Rescue NSW Point Danger $17,000 as part of its ongoing support of the service.

The Point Danger unit is known as the MRNSW Search and Rescue Coordination Centre and operates marine radio monitoring services from Captain Cook and Memorial Lighthouse at Point Danger lookout.

They also conduct vessel operations from the Tweed Marina and maintain an Operations and Regional Training Centre at Duranbah Beach.

Marine Rescue NSW Point Danger Unit Commander Aaron Ashley said the unit was affected by increased costs and gratefully received funding for maintaining watercraft.

“I’d like to thank the Tweed Shire Council for their ongoing support – it seems like there has never been a more important time for our volunteer work to be recognised,” Ashley said.

“We consider ourselves a highly capable unit, and ongoing resources like this funding mean that we can continue to respond to emergencies in our local Tweed waterways in conjunction with other emergency services such as SES at times of natural disasters.”

Marine Rescue NSW Point Danger provides the local community with marine radio monitoring and life-saving maritime search and rescue services, working closely with other local agencies under the NSW Police Force Marine Area Command.

The Mayor of Tweed Shire, Chris Cherry, said recent events, such as ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, illustrated the need for these organisations.

“As the number of extreme weather events increases in our region, services like those provided by Marine Rescue NSW Point Danger become even more important for keeping our community safe,” Cr. Cherry said.

“The sheer volume of incidents they respond to – around three a week – shows how reliant we are on them to protect the users of the Tweed’s waterways.

“I’d particularly like to thank the staff and volunteers at Marine Rescue NSW Point Danger for taking on this vital role,” she said.