About Marine Rescue NSW

Marine Rescue NSW is our State’s official volunteer marine rescue service, committed to saving lives on the water. Safety on the water is our highest priority – for both our volunteers and the boating public.

The State’s newest rescue service was established in July 2009 and officially took to the water on New Year’s Day 2010, backed by our volunteers’ decades of skill and experience. We are not a Government agency but a community owned and focused organisation.

MRNSW brings together members from the three former marine rescue organisations that had long served our community with distinction - the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard Association, Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol and Volunteer Rescue Association’s marine fleet – into a single integrated service.

Our volunteers are the great strength of Marine Rescue NSW. They are professionally trained to strict standards and accredited by the peak NSW rescue authority, the State Rescue Board. Our members work with other emergency services in major disasters.

MRNSW members provide a number of vital safety services to the NSW boating community:

• Swift, coordinated marine emergency response
• Boating safety education and marine licence course for local boaters
• Continuous radio coverage along the coastline

With more than 3,000 members in 46 strategically-located Marine Rescue units from Point Danger to Eden and on the Alpine Lakes, we’ve got you covered!

The generous support of the State Government and the boating community, through NSW Roads and Maritime, is helping us to modernise our fleet of 73 rescue vessels to provide our volunteers with up-to-date, safe and reliable equipment for their valuable work.

Our new boats are fitted with state-of-the-art navigation, electronics, communication, night vision and first aid equipment, including lifesaving automatic defibrillators and oxygen therapy.

Whenever you’re heading out on the water, make sure you use your marine radio to Log On with your local MRNSW Unit so someone responsible is keeping watch for you. If you don’t Log Off when you’re due back, our members will swing into action to find you.