our response
Our role
Surf Life Saving Tasmania plays a key role in Tasmania’s emergency response arrangements, supporting Tasmania Police during floods, swiftwater incidents and inland water rescues across the state.
When Tasmania Police requests assistance, our trained Flood and Swiftwater Rescue teams can deploy with specialist personnel, rescue equipment and watercraft to help access, rescue and evacuate people in dangerous flood and moving-water environments.
Our capability builds on the skills that surf lifesavers use every day around Tasmania’s coastline — adapting that experience, equipment and operational approach to support communities when flooding occurs.
Where it started
Surf Life Saving Tasmania’s involvement in flood response began during the devastating floods of June 2016.
For the first time, SLST volunteers were called upon to support Tasmania Police during a major flood emergency, assisting communities around Latrobe and other affected areas.
The deployment demonstrated the value of surf lifesavers’ existing rescue skills, but also highlighted that flood and swiftwater environments presented very different hazards to those encountered on the beach.
That experience became the catalyst for SLST to build a dedicated Flood and Swiftwater Rescue capability.
Over the following decade, SLST invested in specialist training, equipment, operating procedures and partnerships, drawing on international expertise and adapting established surf lifesaving rescue techniques for use in flood environments.
our role today
Today, Surf Life Saving Tasmania provides Tasmania Police with a specialist Flood and Swiftwater Rescue response capability. Our teams can be deployed across Tasmania to support incidents involving:
Flooded communities and properties
Swift and moving water
Inland rivers and waterways
People trapped or isolated by floodwater
Search and rescue operations
Evacuations and access during flood emergencies
Specialist rescue boat operations
SLST personnel are trained through a nationally recognised flood and swiftwater rescue pathway, ranging from land-based flood rescue through to specialist swiftwater technicians and rescue boat operators.
This capability allows Tasmania Police to call on trained, equipped and deployable rescue teams when incidents require specialist access to dynamic water environments.
A national capability
Tasmania’s experience and expertise in flood rescue has also helped shape Surf Life Saving’s capability nationally.
Surf Life Saving Tasmania is home to Surf Life Saving Australia’s National Centre of Excellence for Flood and Swift Water Rescue.
Through the Centre of Excellence, SLST supports the development of nationally consistent training, equipment and operational standards and delivers specialist training to surf lifesavers and emergency service personnel.
The capability has continued to grow into an interoperable approach across Australia and New Zealand, helping ensure trained surf lifesavers can work safely alongside other emergency services during major flood and natural disaster responses.
Why we do it
Surf lifesaving has always been about more than responding to emergencies on the beach. It is about using our people, skills and equipment to keep communities safe around water.
Flood and swiftwater rescue is a natural extension of that purpose.
Tasmania has a highly capable network of surf lifesavers, rescue personnel, equipment and watercraft positioned across the state. By developing those resources for flood response, we can provide additional capability to Tasmania’s emergency services when communities need it most.
What began with a request for assistance during the 2016 floods has developed into a specialist capability that now supports Tasmania Police, strengthens the state’s emergency response arrangements and helps shape flood rescue practice across Australia and New Zealand.
