Westpac Helicopter Service turns 50

In September, Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter Service turned 50. More than 100,000 missions later, Kim Eberhard, Westpac’s head of group archives, tells its story.

On a mild spring morning on Maroubra beach 50 years ago, Westpac and Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) launched one of the first community partnerships in Australian history. Launched on 29 September, 1973, its impetus came from a group of surf lifesavers looking at improving ways of saving lives at risk in the ocean. Ian Badham from the Sydney branch of SLSA took the lead and championed this concept along with the desire of SLSA to save lives. Inspired by rescue helicopter operations it had seen in New Zealand, SLSA needed a partner to get the concept off the ground in Sydney, so to speak. Ian and SLSA met with Brian Chaseling in the public relations team of Westpac, then known as the Bank of New South Wales. Being a keen volunteer surf lifesaver, Chaseling knew SLSA was onto a winning idea, convincing his high-level colleagues that the bank needed to get on board.

At the time, the Bank of New South Wales was a 156-year-old institution with little history of community sponsorships. Marking a major departure for what was then a staid institution, Chaseling was able to successfully onboard the new partnership. When the service commenced operations in 1973, it operated on weekends and public holidays during the surf season. In its first season, it performed 75 missions, proving the effectiveness of the search and rescue operations then and into the future.