This week is the NSW Seniors Festival, a time to recognise the achievements and contributions made by members of the state aged 60 and over.
Throughout the week, we are profiling five of our senior volunteers and the extraordinary contribution they have made to Marine Rescue and their local community.
Today, meet Marine Rescue Byron volunteer Pam Ditton.
Pam grew up the United Kingdom, and her family had a close connection to the sea, being avid supporters of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), with Pam herself sailing as a child.
In 1953 Pam’s father was part of the ‘tinny army’ of a different time, joining many others to row his small boat out to Canvey Island in the Thames Estuary to rescue people trapped on their roofs by the great North Sea flood of 1953.
Nearly 70 years later and half a world away, Pam’s adopted community of the North Coast was recently struck by its own great flood, with Pam one of the many Marine Rescue Cape Byron Radio Operators helping ensure that vital radio coverage was maintained for the region’s boating community.
“The flood knocked out telecommunications right across the region,” said Pam.
“Our base was able to take over from those bases out of action from the Queensland border as far south as Coffs Harbour, ensuring anyone out on the water had access to potentially life-saving marine radio communications.”
Moving to Australia, Pam practiced as a lawyer in Alice Springs, nearly as far from the sea as you can get, before some 20 years ago moving to be nearer to the sea at Byron Bay.
Wanting a way to contribute to her new community, Pam joined the then Byron Bay Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol, where she became a Radio Operator and later Training Officer for several years.
Her love of the sea and being out on the water was still strong however, and in her own time, she attended the local TAFE and achieved her commercial Coxswain qualification, and purchased a Farr 5000 trailer sailer she sailed on the Clarence River until recently.
“I was a bit of a pioneer in those days,” said Pam.
“There were not a lot of women on boats and the culture at that time didn’t encourage it. I never did head out on the water in a rescue capacity. I decided I wasn’t physically fit enough. Fortunately things have changed somewhat and it’s great to see women of all ages now heading out on the water as crew and acting in leadership positions at Marine Rescue units.”
In her two decades with the Marine Rescue Byron Bay unit Pam has seen it become more professional and better equipped. Now 78, Pam still turns up regularly for shifts at the unit’s small base next to the famous Byron Bay lighthouse at Australia’s most easterly mainland location.
Being a Radio Operator is a great way to do something for your community, although it’s not for everyone, says Pam.
“Most of our Radio Operators are seniors wanting to give something back to the local community.”
“We vet them pretty carefully. You need to be self-reliant, and to take responsibility. You can also be working alone, which isn’t for everyone, but the views over the ocean are incomparable, and there are still opportunities for social interaction.”
“To any senior thinking of giving it a try, it’s a splendid thing to be doing.”
Photo: Pam Ditton (far left), with other volunteers from Marine Rescue Cape Byron, on receipt of their National Medals.
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