A group of brave men mounted a daring rescue through dangerous flood waters in the peak of the 1954 Gold Coast cyclone.

Bill Hookway, now 84, joined the Surfers Paradise Surf Lifesaving Club and earned his bronze medallion in 1944.

"I've been here a while, I think I'm a local," the Southport local said with a laugh.

On Saturday February 20, 1954, the coast was being lashed by wild weather from a tropical cyclone bearing down from the Coral Sea.

The then young club captain Bill was battening down the hatches at his family home.

"Unbeknown to me there's been drama going all day," he recalls.

Police had been trying to rescue 35 people stranded on a rooftop when the Nerang River flooded Macintosh Island.

Among them were a badly injured man and a tiny baby girl, wrapped in a white shawl.

"Boats kept running aground and they just couldn't get over to the island," Bill said.

The police came to the Bill's home and pleaded for the surf club's help.

With a handpicked crew of eight of his strongest swimmers, they dusted off their surf rowing boat and headed to the scene.

The rain was pouring down and the river was flowing wildly, filled with dangerous debris.

"I said anyone who took a boat out across that particularly in a rowing boat, which we've got, I said are crazy," Bill said.

It was decided that none of the five men chosen to man the boat could be brothers, in case any rescue attempt resulted in their deaths.

The evening grew late and as the light faded about 9pm, it looked like all was lost.

"Then an amazing thing happened," Bill said.

What happened, how did they save 35 people with just one surf boat and what became of the tiny baby girl?

Listen to Bill Hookway recall the daring 1954 Gold Coast cyclone rescue to find out.

Find out more about The Great Gold Coast Cyclone - February 1954.