Beach Passport: Saving Lives On Australian Beaches With An Online Education Platform
Executive summary
Beach Passport: Growing Beach Safety Education Through Interactive Learning
Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) needed a way to bring practical beach safety education to people beyond the reach of its patrols. April9 partnered with SLSA to create Beach Passport, an interactive online course that combines safety lessons, video and quizzes.
The platform launched in November 2024 with English and Mandarin content. In October 2026, April9 delivered a refreshed experience with updated screens, redesigned Rip Currents learning, a new Sharks module and more control for SLSA content editors. The current entry screen offers nine language choices and learning paths for primary school students, high school students and adults.
Explore the original launch, the previously reported results and the 2026 platform update.
Client Background
SLSA’s Mission: Save Lives and Build Better Australian Communities through Coastal Safety
With over 190,000 members and 315 affiliated clubs, SLSA is the largest volunteer foundation of its kind in the world. It has been running since 1907 to save lives and ensure coastal safety on Australian beaches – a proud heritage of over 115 years.
To date, the organisation has rescued over 715,000 people, investing over 14+ million volunteer hours each year in this cause.
SLSA raises money through its fundraising arm, the Surf Life Saving Foundation (SLSF), which distributes the funds countrywide to SLSA branches and clubs. These efforts are crucial to ensure the safety of more than 300 million beachgoers visiting the Australian coastline every year.
Related reading: See how we transformed SLSF’s fundraising capability through website modernisation: https://april9.com.au/success-stories/surf-life-saving-foundation-websites
Apart from performing over 8,000 rescues annually, SLSA has grown to play a vital role in Australian communities, supporting mental health and providing pathways for young people to play a crucial role in community water safety.
Challenges
Poor Public Awareness, Higher Water Incident Rates
Research shows that many beachgoers lack critical safety knowledge—from identifying dangerous rip currents to understanding flag systems—contributing to preventable incidents along Australia's vast coastline.
SLSA recognised that education at scale required a digital-first approach. Traditional in-person training and printed materials couldn't reach the hundreds of thousands of beachgoers who needed this knowledge, particularly those visiting remote or unpatrolled beaches.
For the original 2024 launch, SLSA set an ambitious goal: deliver a scalable platform in English and Mandarin in time for a national TV campaign. April9 was engaged to design and build the interactive learning experience within eight weeks.
The Brief: Reach Every Beachgoer
Objectives
Launch Digital Education Platform
For the original November 2024 campaign, build and deploy an interactive beach safety quiz website in English and Mandarin to reach a broader beachgoing audience.
Maximise Public Safety Reach
Deliver critical beach safety education to thousands of Australians who visit unpatrolled areas, bridging the gap between SLSA's physical presence and the drownings that occur outside patrolled zones.
Capture and Nurture Safety-Conscious Audience
Implement integrated lead management system (LMS) to capture user details from course completions, enabling ongoing safety communications and potential membership conversion for SLSA programs.
Create Scalable Education Infrastructure
Establish a flexible, content-managed platform that can accommodate seasonal safety updates, expanded language options, and future educational modules beyond the initial launch.
Dedicated and Accessible Education Website for Public Awareness
SLSA sought an engaging way to boost public awareness and education to a broader audience, including groups with Mandarin backgrounds.
As such, the organisation worked with April9 to build a website for the “Beach Passport” campaign. The two teams worked together to fast-track the website development project in time for the planned national water safety campaign to go live.
Surf Life Saving Australia also wanted the website to include functionality for capturing user details of those who completed the courses to support future communications and updates. This was the Lead Management System (LMS), and the entire process was to be automated to ensure a seamless experience.
The Solution
An Interactive Learning Platform Built for Impact and Scale
For faster and more efficient website development, April9 recommended using a Headless Page Builder tool over a traditional Content Management System. While a standard CMS site might have been simpler to implement, it would have lacked the flexibility needed to deliver the right courses and modules to potential learners. Additionally, the more dynamic CMS allowed for content updates and corrections beyond the go-live date.
Innovative Content Delivery Through Interactive Learning
Features
Beach Passport combines conversational lessons, video and interactive assessments with clear module progress. The refreshed experience helps learners choose an age group, work through the course and return to their saved progress on the same device.
Rich multimedia experiences
Conversational lessons, videos, quizzes and image carousels present beach safety information in a range of formats.
Gamification through module completion
Module progress and a star rating help learners see how they are progressing through the course.
Three age groups
Learners select primary school, high school or adult at the start. This determines which version of the course they receive.
Interactive assessments
Questions within the learning experience reinforce the safety messages covered in each module.
Enterprise-Ready Architecture and Integrations
Scalable Architecture for High-Traffic Campaigns
To accelerate the development process, April9 leveraged automated Cloud deployment tools, streamlining everything from setting up new environments to deploying code for testing and production. We implemented a scalable, containerised web server architecture designed to handle potentially high traffic during the TV campaign launch, ensuring smooth performance aligned with the coordinated media delivery schedule.
Seamless Integration with SLSA's Marketing Ecosystem
Additionally, April9 integrated the form capture directly into SLSA's Stack9 system for seamless marketing automation, enabling learners to share their details after completing courses and receive targeted follow-up communications.
Implementation Process
The Original 2024 Launch
The Beach Passport website journey moved at lightning speed. The project kicked off in early September 2024, with design finalised by late September. Development began by mid-October, leaving just four weeks to build, test, and launch — all before the campaign launch in mid–November. With tight coordination and agile execution, April9 delivered a production-ready site on schedule, overcoming last-minute challenges with flexibility and speed.
During implementation, the project faced a few timing-related challenges that required creative workarounds. For example, the full course content was still being developed in parallel with the website build. To maintain momentum and meet key deadlines, our team adapted by working with a limited selection of draft learning materials—ensuring the project stayed on track for a successful launch.
Thanks to the dynamic CMS features, using the test content was convenient and allowed our team to test all of the site’s learning functions without all the content.
During the implementation process, SLSA’s team complemented our efforts through feature sign-off, content, and testing, ultimately culminating in a successful partnership and on-time project delivery.
Previously Reported Results From the Original Rollout
Results
Beach Passport launched on 18 November 2024 alongside a national TV campaign. The results below were previously reported for the platform and provide the background to its continuing development. They are historical figures, rather than new measurements of the October 2026 release.
Previously reported results included more than 37,000 course completions, with more than 10,000 in the first month after launch. The figures reflect participation reported for the earlier platform.
Previously reported participation included more than 1,000 children completing the interactive course. The original children’s experience used Kangaroo Beach characters and gamified learning to present safety information to younger learners.
Beach Passport launched with English and Mandarin. The current entry screen offers English, Mandarin, Japanese, Punjabi, Hindi, Arabic, German, Cantonese and Vietnamese. The 2026 release added Cantonese and Vietnamese and introduced tools for content editors to add and manage languages.
The platform’s flexible content structure now supports the 2026 screen refresh, updated safety modules and expanded language choices. New Site Settings and language management features give SLSA content editors more control over maintaining the experience.
April9 implemented an integrated lead capture system that feeds user data directly into SLSA’s Stack9-powered marketing ecosystem. This enables SLSA to deliver targeted follow-up communications—such as seasonal safety reminders and program updates—without relying on manual processing, paving the way for smarter, more efficient audience engagement.
The success of the Beach Passport was amplified by a seamless transition from Surf Life Saving Australia’s national TV campaign to the online platform. Viewers were guided directly from broadcast messaging to an interactive course environment—minimising friction, maximising uptake, and ensuring that safety education moved beyond awareness into action.
"The platform proved that Australians were eager for accessible safety education when presented in an engaging, convenient format.”
Continuing the Partnership
Supporting Ongoing Beach Safety Education
The October 2026 release builds on the original platform with updated learning content and an experience that SLSA can continue to maintain in Prismic. This gives the team a practical foundation for future safety content and language updates.
Previously Reported Education Reach
The earlier case study also reported integration of Beach Passport into the Western Australia school curriculum. This extended the reach of the learning experience into a school setting.
Beach Passport 2.0: The October 2026 Release
April9 released Beach Passport 2.0 on 8 October 2026. The update focused on the learner experience and the tools SLSA uses to maintain it:
- A refreshed interface. Updated screens and navigation support the learning journey from language and age selection through to module progress.
- Updated safety learning. A redesigned Rip Currents experience uses more native app content flows. The new Marine Animals: Sharks module replaces Stop Look Stay Alive.
- Expanded language choices. Cantonese and Vietnamese joined the entry screen’s language options.
- More control for content editors. Site Settings gives editors control over brand assets, while language management tools allow the team to create and upload language content.
Maintaining the Platform as It Grows
SLSA content editors can use Prismic to maintain course content, brand assets and language versions. The platform can continue to evolve as safety content and learner needs change.
The refreshed course keeps the focus on practical safety education, with age-based learning paths, visible progress and short interactive lessons.
April9 continues to support SLSA in making practical beach safety education accessible to more people.
