The Water Rats – the Southern Hemisphere's oldest surf lifesaving club?

Out on A Swim

‘Out on a swim’ is a coral reef blog that tells the stories of the characters who live under the waves and what has caught my eye when ‘out on a swim’ in the lagoons of Norfolk Island. It is also a record of the difficulties Norfolk Island’s reef faces, like many others around the world, as a result of the poor water quality that has been allowed to flow onto it.

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While not strictly about Norfolk Island’s reef life, this interesting tale from history is still worthy of a blog post on this website.

1886, Frederic Schell, *Australia Illustrated*

Can Norfolk Island claim the Southern Hemisphere’s oldest surf lifesaving club? Read on to find out more!

In 1842, a young Private Joshua Hamlet Gregory, just 20 years old and sent to serve in the penal colony of Norfolk Island, wrote a diary. (It can be seen at the Norfolk Island Museums.[i]) From it we can learn a great deal about life in the settlement, but one particular snippet fascinates me. Transcribed from page 45 of his handwritten account is the following:

‘One day we were all surprised at seeing a large vessel come booming down on the settlement. She was flying Yankee colours and appeared too large for a whaler, and too slovenly for a man of war, but be what she would, on she came with her wide spreading sails, until within a quarter of a mile of the beach when she hove to and lowered a boat which pulled for the shore.

‘The bar at the time was rolling mountains high and impossible for any boat to cross it in safety, We signaled to them to keep off, but they paid no attention to us. As she came nearer we saw, sitting in her stern a lady and a gentleman. In vain we tried to make them sensible of their danger, but it was no use.

‘In a moment the Water Rats were at their post: These water Rats as we called them, were convicts that stood on the rock ready to plunge into the waves in case a boat upset. If they had the good luck to rescue anyone, they were sure to get a part of their sentence struck off. They were certainly the best swimmers I ever saw in my life. As I said before, there they stood, six in number like statues with their arms folded across their chests, with nothing on but a pair of thin drawers, a smile of satisfaction sat upon the visage of each reckless and daring exile.’

From Gregory’s description, you can imagine these convicts, with nothing to lose and everything to gain – simultaneously brave and foolhardy – waiting for their moment to shine. Gregory continues:

‘On came the gallant little boat, jumping from wave to wavelike a thing of life. When they had got within fifty yards of the bar they could see their danger, but it was too late to retreat, for she was then in the midst of heavy swells and it was as safe to go one way as the other. The crew showed both strength and skill, but it was all to no purpose for the swells were too much for them. Sometimes she was completely covered with the spray and drenched to the skin the people that were in her.

‘She neared the point and I could see the lady was in great alarm. She looked towards the shore in a most pitiful manner, but when her eyes fell apon the Water Rats, she seemed to eye them with something like satisfaction for she doubtlessly understood their business.’

We know that three convicts, at least, managed to have their sentences reduced because of their service as ‘Water Rats’. These were:

George Davenport: he was Charles Sturt’s convict cook. He saved the life of Captain Rennoldson of the Queen Charlotte, who unfortunately died soon after from gunshot wounds.
William Archer: Archer was a recidivist who was transported to Norfolk Island for stealing cattle. When a boat from the Arthur Phillip was overturned at the bar in 1840, three Water Rats went to the rescue. Convicts Best and McLean drowned, but Archer saved a man and was returned to the mainland and freed. Archer became a cattle baron and the third Mayor of Grafton.
James Porter: Porter saved some officers who had been fishing at Cascade.[ii] [iii]

I do wonder if these Water Rats, who were organised especially for the purpose of saving lives from the surf, could lay claim to being members of the oldest surf lifesaving club in the Southern Hemisphere (which according to the National Museum of Australia began in around 1905 in Australia). Hmmm.

Kingston Pier, Norfolk Island, completed in 1847

[i] Norfolk Island Museums, NIM20360

[ii] William Water Rats, (downloadable document from a now defunct blog) http://www.findtex.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/William-Water-Rats.docx

[iii] Brian, Don and Sue 2018, ‘The Water Rats of Norfolk Island, Australia’s First Surf Lifesavers?’ Signals, viewed 20 November 2023, https://issuu.com/anmmuseum/docs/signals120_ipad

August 16, 2026

What’s grazing in the green stuff?

A proliferation of Bryopsis on the reef has brought some beautiful little underwater grazers with it. I follow the trail from sap-sucking sea slugs and egg masses to a bigger question – why is there so much Bryopsis around at the moment?

August 8, 2026

The clam beneath Emily Bay

I’ve seen the beautiful shells of Laciolina chloroleuca in Emily Bay for decades, but I’d never really stopped to wonder where the living animals were. It turns out they may be buried half a metre beneath the sand. A closer look at an easily overlooked clam, its extraordinary shell markings, and the hidden life beneath our lagoon.

August 1, 2026

Reflections of an accidental marine scientist

What I thought would be a steady plod towards retirement, with plenty of time spent nursing grandchildren, was abruptly upended exactly six years ago today. This is the story of how an environmental catastrophe changed the course of my life – and led me to reinvent myself. It is a reflection on how, and why, I became an accidental marine scientist.

July 24, 2026

From ridge to reef: unpicking the Waterway and Wetland Strategy

Norfolk Island’s draft Waterway and Wetland Strategy will guide work for the next ten years. I support its intent, but it needs to be clear, practical and measurable – joining the dots from ridge to reef so we know whether public money is improving water quality and helping the reef.

July 13, 2026

Reef reality in pictures

Let the pictures do the talking. This is the reality on Norfolk Island’s reef today, laid out in a two-minute video.

June 28, 2026

The red seaweed behind low-methane beef

A small red seaweed on Norfolk’s reef has become part of a much bigger story. Asparagopsis taxiformis can look like a delicate red feather duster or, at another stage of its life cycle, like a tiny cottony pom-pom. It is beautiful, easily overlooked, and now being used in the cattle industry to help reduce methane emissions. This post looks at the reef oddity behind the low-methane beef story – and why repeated local observation can be more useful than it first appears.

June 20, 2026

From coral scar to aatuti farm

Aatuti are bold little algae farmers, but how does one of their farms begin? Over the past year, I have been following several coral patches as small white scars became algal footholds, then larger defended patches. I still cannot say what caused the first wounds, but the photo sequences show something fascinating: on a reef where algae is already gaining ground, even tiny changes on the coral surface can become part of a much bigger story.

June 15, 2026

Norfolk’s water quality – when action is reported as outcome

A recent Australian Government media release presents investment, monitoring and catchment works as progress on Norfolk Island’s water quality. Some of that work is useful, and some of it was badly needed. But activity is not the same as proven improvement. This post looks at Kingston sewerage, wetlands, cattle, acid sulfate soils, groundwater and reef health, and asks whether Emily Bay and Slaughter Bay are actually being better protected.

June 14, 2026

How surgeonfishes got their name

Surgeonfish are named for the sharp little scalpels near their tails, but on Norfolk’s reef their more useful work happens at the other end. Pencil surgeonfish, bluespine unicornfish and their relatives help browse algae across the reef – a small daily job that becomes very valuable on an algae-rich lagoon reef like ours.

May 28, 2026

A shrimp storm

While setting my research cams last week, I swam into what looked like an underwater snowstorm. It appeared to be the aftermath of a mass moulting event, with large numbers of tiny, translucent shrimp-like exoskeletons drifting together near the surface.