Matthew Barclay Funeral

The funeral of the third young man to die competing in the Life Saving Championships at Kurrawa Beach on the Gold Coast was held today. Matthew Barclay was a quiet, nice-looking 14 year old who drowned in a board race at the championships last week.  

He had a bright future in the sport, the young ironman champion belonged to the Maroochydore Surf Club and won last year’s Junior Coolangatta Gold. His parents said they don’t blame anyone for his death and completely support the Life Saving Association.

Searching for Matthew's body

Two years ago on the same beach, Saxon Bird was knocked unconscious by an out of control ski and drowned but his parents aren’t so forgiving, in fact they are still bitter and angry. His mother said officials were warned to call the event off because of foul weather but they refused and she lost her son because of it. “I will never forgive them for that – ever” she said. In 1996 Robert Gatenby 15 also drowned on the same beach in the same competition.

So what is it about Kurrawa that makes it so dangerous? Apparently it's an open, raw stretch of coastline and has currents that run north to south, south to north - it also has currents that run out to sea, basically west to east in your traditional rip pattern. And it has waves, when it's large, breaking on an outer bank, a middle bank and an inner bank with a large shore break.

Officials said the swell on that day was only around 1 metre but Terry McDermott, one of the stars of Bondi Rescue said “The beach can still be dangerous at one metre, make no mistake, it's about how the conditions are breaking, how the waves are forming up on that particular stretch of coastline - you need experience and very professional people making these decisions if you're going to run young kids out in large or dangerous surf.”

Chief Executive

So why did they ignore advice and press on with the championships? Saxon Bird’s father said “They're locked into contracts, there's a whole lot of implicit and explicit inducements to be there. There's too much commercial interest there to move it." 


He went on "They have agreements with state and local governments to help fund the event. In 2010, the Queensland Government paid more than $1.3 million in the first year of a 12 year contract but here’s the bottom line – Surf Life Saving must refund money if the titles are cancelled, postponed or not broadcast. Telstra paid $1.5 million but also gets money back if the titles are postponed, cancelled or abandoned. Same conditions apply for the $600,000 2 year contract with Sensis and the Gold Coast City Council who gives $175,000 in cash and $330,000 in services."

So it’s clear there’s a lot to lose if it’s cancelled or postponed but they need to move the event to a safer beach and to hell with the consequences. Kurrawa beach has already claimed three young lives, it’s time to move on.