Some months ago Marine Rescue Middle Harbour asked the Manly Daily to assist us to appeal to the wider community for help to replace the foundation and refurbish the flagpole that stands on Spit Road at the front of the base.

The flagpole is in the form of a main shaft and a cross-bar as was previously used by land stations to send messages by flag signal to vessels on the water.
Thanks to the generosity of MH Skiff Club (‘Skiffies’) members and Edcon Steel of Brookvale, the flag flies again over Spit Road. MH Skiff Club members provided a crane to remove the pole and the old rusted base as well as a backhoe to remove the old concrete foundation. Some additional hard yakka by our members completed the site preparation. Edcon Steel of Brookvale fabricated, galvanised and donated the new steel base which was concreted in a coupe of weeks ago. Last weekend, Middle Harbour Maintenance Officer Ken Birks and a team from BRAVO Watch (Duty Officer Geoff Cook, Len Cole, Lance Miller, Peter Steigrad plus Joseph Battaglia from Alpha Watch) raised the flagpole.
Unit Commander Peter Nott of Middle Harbour Unit said:
“This a really fantastic example of our community working with us to assist the unit in a time of need. Ken Birk’s team have done an outstanding job in managing the job from start to finish and in doing some of the back-breaking work; it is great to see this icon from a by-gone age restored.
At 11.35 on 4 April 2016, the Maintenance Officer in the presence of Bravo Watch raised The Australia Flag and The Marine Rescue Flag was hoisted and the upgraded flagpole was secured for service.
With the community’s help, this project has now been completed with minimum drain on our very limited funds. Our sincere thanks to Skiffies and Edcon Steel for their support and, which allows us to focus on our prime objective of ‘savings lives on the water”.





