The City of Mandurah will finally put surfer Ben Gerring’s legacy on show this Friday, with the official opening of the new Beach Emergency Number (BEN) signage system at Gearies Beach, Falcon.
Mr Gerring tragically lost his life in May 2016 after being mauled by a great white shark off the popular surfing spot.
It was the first fatal shark attack off the Mandurah coast.
Following Mr Gerring’s tragic death, Mandurah mayor Marina Vergone acknowledged that emergency services delayed in arriving to the scene due to being unable to locate Mr Gerring quickly enough.
And resolved to move a motion to improve beach identification in emergency situations by updating the names of popular beaches and installing new information signs.
“When we have a tragedy happen, it is important that we look at how we could have improved the situation and this is one simple solution that I believe should be in place,” she said in July 2016.
Initially, Ms Vergone suggested an overarching WA-wide approach, with a common beach coding system across the state.
However, consultation with other stakeholders revealed that it would be very difficult to guarantee state-wide consistency due to other councils having their own systems in place, prompting the City of Mandurah to take the first steps on their own.
“The City recognises that this needs to be a State-wide approach so are encouraging other local governments and the state government to get on board,” a City of Mandurah spokesperson said.
“To assist, the City is now finalising an advisory document for other local governments and agencies that it is hoped will form a template to encourage consistency and expansion of the concept in Western Australia.”
After several months in the making, the BEN signage was installed at more than 80 different coastal locations in the Mandurah area last week.
The new signs will include information such as the official beach names, GPS coordinates, coding, closest streets and nearest cross roads.
An official BEN signage launching event will be held at Gearies Beach surf break, on Panamuna Drive, Falcon, at 1.30pm on Friday.