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Lifeguard captains suspended for burning Aboriginal trophy vandalism

By Kathy Marks in Sydney

17 February 2003 - Australia’s most exclusive surf life-saving club is in turmoil after the captain and vice-captain destroyed a trophy, carved by Aboriginal elders, in a drunken act of vandalism.

The pair were suspended for a month by the management committee of the club, whose lifeguards patrol the golden sands of Palm Beach, one of Sydney’s most affluent beachside suburbs and home to media tycoon Kerry Packer.

But some angry members are calling for the captain, Sam Espie, a merchant banker, and the vice-captain, Hamish Murchison, a solicitor, to be dismissed.

The trophy, made out of five boomerangs and two spears, was doused in lighter fluid and burnt after the two men tore it down off a wall and smashed it into pieces. Their actions were witnessed by about 50 club members, including a number of new recruits or “freshers”.

The decision to limit punishment to a month’s suspension disgusted the club’s chief instructor, Karl Levy, who resigned from the management committee.

Another senior member of the club, who asked not to be identified, said: “It’s outrageous. We will seek advice on whether we can call a general meeting of members to have them thrown out. At least, they should be removed from office.”

But the club’s president, Jon Erickson, said: “It’s an internal club issue, which the committee has dealt with appropriately. There is no justification for what happened.”

While some surf life-saving clubs struggle to attract new members, there are long queues to join Palm Beach, which has considerable social cachet among Sydney’s monied classes. Last year the club accepted 61 freshers, most of them women, and turned down a far greater number.

Only about half of those who are accepted survive their first year of training and initiation.

The trophy was awarded in 1994 to a club rowing crew which won a river race from Bourke to Brewarrina in rural New South Wales.

Mr Espie and Mr Murchison two men have been ordered to replace the trophy, but Philippa McDermott, a spokeswoman for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, the country’s main indigenous organisation, said: “I’d be very surprised if the elders at Brewarrina want anything to do with them.”

Source: The Independent

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