‘This is our spiritual home’: Scores of Surf lifesavers Come together to Pay tribute to Tragedy Victims.

Looking out upon the waves on Bondi coast, hand in hand with nearly 1,000 colleagues, Lockie Cook allowed himself to experience the grief of a area's deeply distressing week in living memory.

“I feel like that guard’s just dropping,” he remarked.

Volunteer lifeguards assembled by the score on Saturday morning to participate in two minutes of silence and honour those lost in the previous weekend's violence.

From the very young to the elderly, alongside friends and neighbours clad in their iconic colours embraced one another, making a chain running from the iconic bay's north end to its southern tip.

“The key realization to emerge from this tragedy is just the depth to which this community means to me,” he said.

“This is our church … It is vital we come together again and truly recover.”

An Interval of Quiet Contemplation

At that morning, the two minutes’ silence was announced by a figure at the beach’s main patrol tower, around which had been laid rows of flowers.

“Two minutes can be a an eternity but I urge you to reflect,” he urged.

“Link arms with the person next to you, close your eyes and reflect on the families affected so we can emerge more resilient for this community.”

Attendees looked down or to the horizon as residents, visitors and officials stood by. The only sounds were the lapping of the sea, a distant canine cry and a whirring rescue helicopter, which circled along the beachfront as the moment concluded.

Reclaiming the Shore

People gathered slowly hugged one another and clap for their companions at the far end of the beach as acclamation erupted from the watching crowd.

This was another example of the volunteers working to bring together the community this difficult period, stated one individual, a member of the Jewish community of the beach's north side and a person who assisted on the day of the attack.

“Today I just feel the compassion and solidarity,” said the individual, who wished to remain anonymous.

Having made his home in Bondi for most of his years, he took part in the community swim on in the days after and has sought to take back the beach as his own.

“It was like reclaiming a space, it’s cathartic,” he added.

The Guiding Spirit of Service

Gene Ross, a longtime lifesaving teacher, spent the moments’ silence next to his recently qualified son, reflecting on the togetherness his club had demonstrated every day since Sunday.

“The decision to enact the attack here … invited Australia to come and support the community.”

Hundreds of lifesavers laughed and cried together as they made their way toward their surf clubs and through the green space where their teammates performed rescues on Sunday.

Dozens more remained on the water's edge, on duty to help people entering the water.

“We serve the entire community and that’s the guiding spirit of beach rescue,” Ross said.

“It is our calling as lifesavers: we head into the danger.”