Beach/Ocean Wheelchair Request

*** Please get in touch with us to “pre-book” the beach and ocean access wheelchair so we can reserve it for you. ***

“Good morning. We had the wonderful opportunity to use your new accessible beach walk with my daughter yesterday. Thankyou so much for enabling this wonderful gift. My daughter became paralysed due to cancer and the surgery required in 2009 at 19 and this was her first time back on the beach since. It was a wonderful experience. Because we went to the wrong place (we went to the club area) first we arrived as the lads were about to pack up. I have to commend the lads for being so polite, friendly and allowing us to have an extra 10 minutes to walk the ramp. I saw them also allowing another wheelchair as we left. I must give one important piece of feedback though, could the ramp be rolled out as close as possible to the Main Street access ramp please. My daughters front wheels became bogged in the gap between the street ramp and your new access ramp. My husband easily lifted her wheels out, but had I been on my own with her I would’ve had to yell for help. I can’t thank you and the beautiful boys who were on duty yesterday enough for installing this wonderful thing. My daughter was excited and overwhelmed by emotion at getting back to the beach. Thankyou so much xxxx. Regards, Julie Rackebrandt.”

Seacliff was the first beach in South Australia to roll out the beach access mat allowing wheelchair access to the water’s edge and we’ve seen it put to great use.  The mat is rolled out every weekend and public holiday from 1pm to 5pm.  It is rolled out at Seacliff Beach in front of the Seacliff Pub where there is a wheelchair ramp leading down to the beach and then the beach mat sits at the base of this ramp allowing access from the ramp.
Walkers, canes, wheelchairs and strollers are just a few of the mobility assist devices that we’ve seen assist people to make their way down the beach access mat to enjoy the ocean.  In fact, every weekend it is put to great use.

On Australia Day 2016, the beach mat at Seacliff was officially launched and people have been visiting in numbers to use the mat to get to the water’s edge.

This project has been a culmination of a lot of effort from our club, Surf Life Saving SA and MP David Spiers.

In addition to our efforts, we also received generous donations from:

  • $5,000 from the Rotary Club of Brighton
  • $1,000 from the City of Holdfast Bay
  • $500 from the Lions Club of Hallett Cove
  • $500 from EnerG+ Personal Training
  • 10% of net profits for December 2015/January 2016 from Solarsuit Australia
  • $3000 from generous donations through crowd funding