History
The Port Elliot Surf Life Saving Club in its current form was incorporated in 1933 and has been providing lifesaving services virtually nonstop since then. The Club is built upon the first recorded lifesaving action recorded at Port Elliot in 1860.
Horseshoe Bay was proclaimed a port in 1851, and the settlement above the bay was named Port Elliot in 1852 after Charles Elliot, the Governor of Bermuda who was a friend of the then Governor of South Australia, Sir Henry Young. The location had been previously known as Freeman's Knob; the indigenous name for the area is believed to be ‘Witengangool’.
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One of the ships, named the Flying Fish, washed onto rocks in Horseshoe Bay with nine crew aboard. A local man, Agen Dent, swam out with just a rope tied around his waist and rescued all nine crew from the stricken ship. Today, we still derive our Flying Fish logo, our boat names and our ‘Vigilance and Service’ motto from this heroic action from 150 years earlier.