00:00The shack community in the Royal National Park is so unique in the world, there's nothing
00:08quite like it that exists.
00:11It's not just the shacks that are unique, it's the community.
00:14We keep those values that used to exist dating back to the Great Depression, so we're still
00:19doing similar things that they used to do and that's what's really special is the community
00:25is so unique.
00:26No one quite knows what they're going to experience when they come to visit.
00:31I started coming down to Eira at a similar age to what Brooks is now.
00:37I came down with mum and dad on a similar backpack.
00:40This is Brooks' third trip down.
00:43We come down mostly on weekends when we've got patrols or vents on down here.
00:49The shacks are heritage listed and we have a licence until 2027.
00:54It's the shacks that remain, we are just caretakers and we're working really hard with
00:59National Parks to try and renew that licence.
01:01Hopefully in the next few years we can come to an agreement on what that licence looks
01:06like.
01:07It's really tricky because we can't just replicate another licence from a shack community, we
01:12have to build it together.
01:15Growing up with all my girlfriends and guy friends down here has been fantastic.
01:22We're still close to this day and I hope our kids grow up together.
01:25A big part of it was the surf club.
01:28We all shared this interest in the ocean and also just giving back to the community and
01:35the lands.
01:36We're all now a part of the surf club or the protection league and we're often stepping
01:40up into these positions where we're helping the community out and we all just have the
01:45same values.
01:46They appreciate just the simple things in life.
01:49It's so unique down here in the fact that we're not in a suburban area, there's not
01:53emergency services at the flick of your fingers so having the surf club down here and having
01:58patrolling members on public holidays and weekends is fantastic because the amount of
02:04public that we get to in here that do come and have a swim, as soon as they see those
02:07red and yellow flags they know that they're safe and that they can go in the water and
02:13not have that anxiety of the possibility of getting taken out to sea in a rip.
02:17I would love my little fella Brooks to do nippers down here.
02:20My wife Rachel, her father and mother actually started the nippers group down here, which
02:26I think was probably about 30 years ago.
02:28So that's rich in history for us.
02:30The community is part of the surf club and the surf club is part of the community.
02:34They go hand in hand and it is volunteer so if there were no shacks down here there would
02:38not be a surf club, it's just plain and simple.
02:41To walk down here takes an hour, to walk back up takes an hour.
02:44It's a big effort to get down, come on patrol, unpack everything, pack it back up, put it
02:50all away.
02:51So the fact that you can come down and do that, spend a weekend at the shark with your
02:54family, it just makes it so much more enjoyable.
03:00I hope Brooks comes down and he is raised exactly how I have been.
03:06Just having a love for the ocean and the environment and how precious it is.
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