Historical information

In 1956 an international surfing competition was staged on Torquay Beach in conjunction with the Melbourne Olympics. A number of countries were invited including the USA and its Territory of Hawaii, New Zealand, South Africa, Ceylon, Great Britain. An international surf carnival was held on 25th November and Australian championships were held on 2nd December. Australia was represented by each state with the majority of teams coming from NSW (64), then Queensland (18), Victoria (12), South Australia (7), Western Australia (7) and Tasmania (3). The Victorian teams were Anglesea, Apollo Bay, Lorne, Ocean Grove, Point Leo, Point Lonsdale, Port Fairy, Portland, RAAF College, Sorrento/Portsea, Torquay and Warrnambool.
Preparation for the carnivals was immense. The mouth of Spring Creek was diverted closer to the bluff to allow more sand area for the competitors. Forestry Commission tractors were brought to do the task and they also smoothed other sections of the beach and covered rocky areas. Wire fences were erected to enclose the spectators' area. VIPs who accepted to attend were Prime Minister R G Menzies, State Premier H E Bolte, High Commissioners of South Africa, Ceylon and New Zealand and the Ambassador of USA. International visitors included Rusty Millar USA Chief Lifeguard and Duke Kahanamoku. Australian VIPs included Andrew "Boy" Charlton who set five world swimming records and won three silver and one bronze Olympic medal. Special trains ran from Flinders St Station from 8.45am connecting with buses to Torquay. Torquay locals were called upon to volunteer as ushers, gatekeepers and for other event duties.
Torquay SLSC entered 52 competitors across all events both junior and senior.
70,000 people attended the International Carnival. The Americans came with narrow fibre-glass surfboards which were much faster than the Australian boards. The reel and line method of rescue was a new concept to the Americans who wore a belt and carried a reel of line into the water and let it out as they swam to the patient. New Zealand won the march past and Hawaii won the beach relay and the board race. In the Australian Championships NSW won the rescue and resuscitation event and a Victorian (J Fountain, Lorne) won the belt race.

Physical description

108 page souvenir programme, colour cover. Colour, and black and white pages inside.