Committed to helping others achieve their potential

Royal Life Saving WA’s Business Development Manager, Leanne Coverley-Brandis, has a passion for community and for helping others work towards their own achievements. Having worked in the aquatic industry for over four decades, Leanne is still as enthusiastic today as when she first started.

We recently spoke to Leanne about her years in the industry and why she chose a career in aquatics.

“I didn’t actually. It chose me,” she laughs. Leanne grew up in the Wheatbelt town of Narembeen, where she returned after completing school in Perth. Midway through a cadetship with St John Ambulance and Rural Health, she decided she didn’t want to be an ambulance officer and instead went on a working holiday around Australia teaching swimming.

“I only made it as far as Port Hedland," she says. "They talked me into doing the pool manager’s certificate so I could open up some of those more remote pools like Goldsworthy, Pannawonica, Paraburdoo – so that we could run swimming lessons through those areas. I did my Swimming Pool Manager’s certificate in 1984. I’ve been manager in Harvey, Brookton, Wagin, Esperance and lastly in Geraldton. I spent 15 years in Geraldton.”

Leanne has always been passionate about ensuring aquatic facilities are kept open in regional areas and that there are enough qualified aquatic staff to run them.

“I think it gets missed so much. People just think that it will happen. It makes me a bit angry when people in Perth are going ‘we don’t have any lifeguards, we’ve only got three on shift’ and I’m thinking oh, half your luck! Country pool managers are working 14-hour days, 7 days a week in summer so, you know, you’re lucky you’ve got someone.”

Leanne became a Bronze Examiner with Royal Life Saving in 2002, later gaining her Aquatic Trainer and First Aid Trainer qualifications. While working in Geraldton, she completed her Certificate IV in Training and Assessment which allowed her to deliver and assess a variety of courses. 

“I did a lot of training through the Mid West; different types of training but a lot in Sport and Rec and swimming. So, First Aid, trying to get lifeguards, trying to get people fit for work so we could open those country swimming pools because there was often no one there to run them over the summer.”

"It's the heartbeat of the town really. If you don’t have a swimming pool there’s nothing else to do, especially when it’s so hot.”

Teaching swimming, water safety and first aid skills to others has always been a big focus for Leanne. “I always think swimming is for life," she says. "It’s to save our own lives, to save other people’s lives, but also, I think knowledge is power. The more education people can have, surely – hopefully – the safer we will be. And more people in emergency situations will be saved or have a higher chance of recovery because people have that knowledge. It's not rocket science; anyone can do it with just a little bit of effort of someone teaching them and them training at it.”

These days, Leanne spends much of her time training other trainers and developing their skills. “I mentor trainers and look at all the courses that we do and go ‘are they up to date, are they what industry needs, do they need a revamp, do we need to add more to it or take bits away’, that type of thing. Then I educate the trainers on what parts are important and how we go about doing that, I make sure everyone’s compliant in their training and that we’re all on the same page.”

What does she enjoy the most about her job? “The people. Meeting different people, different walks of life. My biggest enjoyment – and I see this a lot in traineeships – is watching someone accomplish something they never thought they could. Just seeing the joy and the sense of pride when they actually get a certificate or, you know, they swim those 50 metres, or they do two years of a traineeship and at the end you give them an award and they are just really proud of themselves that they could achieve that. I think that’s pretty amazing. 

"Watching the joy on people’s faces when they achieve things.”

In December 2021, Leanne was awarded an Australian Companion Award for her contribution to the work of Royal Life Saving. General Manager of Operations, Ian Brown, presented her with the award.

“Leanne has a long history working in the aquatic industry and has more recently been employed as Royal Life Saving’s Business Development Manager, but her volunteer service is particularly significant,” Ian said.

“She is the ‘go to’ person when any trainers have questions regarding the delivery of training courses. She has spent significant time doing one-on-one mentoring and development sessions with other trainers to share her knowledge and extend their skills. Leanne is a great asset to our organisation and the industry.”