Alexandra Ching has lived in Bondi her whole life, describing the iconic beach nearby as her back yard. On Sunday evening, like many residents in the area, she heard pops echo through the neighbourhood and thought they were fireworks.
“Everyone did, but I thought it was too light and no one could see them, so what’s the point,” Ching tells the Guardian. She left her apartment to see people “streaming up Bondi Road”. When she saw the looks on their faces, she knew something was wrong.
As Ching stood on the road speaking with a couple who had run up the hill, still dripping wet in their swimmers, she heard someone come up behind her. It was a lifeguard sprinting towards Bondi, barefoot, from neighbouring Tamarama beach – about 1.5km away – carrying a defibrillator.
“I heard someone say ‘excuse me’, and as I turned I just saw this flash of blue,” she recounts. “He was just flying past. It was just him running in the direction that everyone was trying to escape from, carrying that big kit and barefoot … He’s running at something that surely every fibre in your being, you know, would tell you to go in the other direction.
“Just no hesitation, but just fully pedal to the metal sprinting.”
A photo Ching captured of the lifeguard, since identified as Jackson Doolan, quickly spread as one of many moments of heroism in the aftermath of the terror attack at a Hanukah celebration for the eastern suburbs Jewish community.
Andy Reid, another lifeguard, says Doolan, known as “Jacko”, ran from Tamarama beach to back up the rest of his team at Bondi, as well as assist surf lifesavers, police and ambulance crews treating dozens of victims.
“I can’t even begin to imagine what you all had to witness and deal with, but you are all the most incredible people,” Reid wrote on Instagram on Monday. “I’m grateful we live in a world where you exist to show that kindness will always conquer evil.”
Doolan’s story was just one of many to come from the community on Sunday, with the lifeguard clubhouse next to the scene of the attack becoming a makeshift hospital. He shared a video on his own account of a colleague, Rory Davey, rushing into the ocean to rescue two people in distress as shots were still being fired.
“Appreciate all the messages. I’m safe and all of the lifeguards are safe,” Doolan wrote after the attack on his Instagram story. “Speechless. Well done to everyone involved in helping out.”
The Bondi lifeguards shared a statement on Tuesday saying their team was “still trying to comprehend what occurred” on Sunday.
“Thank you all for your kind messages and support. We are overwhelmed by the compassion shown towards our responders,” the group wrote on social media. “In time, we will share our stories in the hope that it helps those affected and reflects that everything possible was done.”
Waverley council, which employs many full-time lifeguards to patrol Bondi, North Bondi and Tamarama beaches, says the team rose to the occasion from the moment the shooting began to late into the night.
“There have been so many moving stories, but the viral image of Jackson Doolan, running from Tamarama to Bondi with a defibrillator so he could help save lives is remarkable,” the Waverley mayor, Will Nemesh, said in a statement.
“Our lifeguards show selflessness every day in keeping our world-famous beaches safe for surfers and swimmers, but what we saw on Sunday night should be commended and celebrated.
“While we mourn and come to terms with the horror of this brutal and barbaric terrorist attack, I think it is important that we reflect on just how much good we have seen in the face of such evil.”
