Lesley Meaney

From Openwaterpedia

Lesley Meaney (née Cherriman, born in England in 1945) is an artist, an open water swimmer, and event administrator from Australia.

Open Water Swimming Highlights

  • She was the first female to complete a 19.7 km crossing of the Rottnest Channel Swim in Western Australia in 1969 in 9 hours 35 minutes as Lesley Cherriman. She was escorted by a launch but also chaperoned by a team of six rotating skindivers, wearing wetsuits, flippers, weight belts and armed with spear guns (the support team was concerned about sharks!). This made for a slow crossing – as she had to stop regularly to enable the divers to catch up. She was the first to swim from Rottnest Island to the Mainland.
  • She swam in 1970 from Fremantle to Rottnest Island (to raise funds for the Blind).
  • She swam in 1971 from Fremantle to Rottnest and had to abandon the return leg due to adverse weather conditions.
  • She swam in the 2000 race from Cottesloe to Rottnest Island in 7.02.44. This made her a member of the Half Century Club as Lesley Cherriman Meaney.

Masters Swimming Highlights

  • She won bronze in 2008 at the X11 Fina World Masters 3km OWS 60-64yrs.
  • She won silver in 2018 at the National SLSA Masters Champs 2km 70-74yrs.
  • She won silver in 2023 at the National SLSA Masters Champs 2km 75-79.
  • She won the World Aquatics Masters Championship 3 km open water swim in Singapore on 26 July 2025 in 1:31:43.2 at the age of 80, representing the Busselton Masters.


Rottnest Channel Swim Association

  • In 1991 she was a Founding Member Rottnest Channel Swim Association.
  • In 2001 she was awarded with a Life Membership.
  • In 2018 she was inducted into the Rottnest Channel Swim Association Hall of Fame.
  • AUTHOR of “WHY SWIM TO ROTTNEST WHEN YOU CAN CATCH THE FERRY (published in 1994 ISBN 0 949795 86 0) this book covers the history of OWS in Western Australia - which started in 1912 – and concludes with interviews of the first hundred Rottnest Channel Solo Swimmers.
  • AUTHOR of “LESLEY MEANEY - BECOMING AUSTRALIAN’ (published in 2019 ISBN 978-0-646-80289-3) This book has a foreword by Mary- Anne Paton, also a Rottnest Channel Swim Association HALL of FAME inductee
  • EDITOR from the late 1990s to the early 2000s and founder of the ‘Channel Chatter’ newsletter. This ceased with the introduction of Facebook in 2004.
  • ARTIST in 1991 who designed Rottnest Channel Swim Association Logo and Trophies and in 2019 Limestone, Steel & Wood Sculpture installed on Rottnest is a church-like version of the Cottesloe pylon, not for religious reasons but as a metaphor for congregation - demonstrated in the mass departure of swimmers leaving the mainland for Rottnest Island. To date over 4,000 individuals have made a solo crossing – all of whom have congregated again on the Island to celebrate their successful channel swims.
  • MENTOR from 1991 to 2022 for several ‘First Time Solo Swimmers’.
  • VOLUNTEER - assisted in several different roles in the annual race: speaker, support crew, team manager, start line official, timekeeper, etc.
  • Awards and Advisory committee member: 2025 and 2026 RCSA Awards and Advisory committee member

Life Members of the Rottnest Channel Swim Association

Life membership is a special membership, confirmed at an annual general meeting, for meritorious service made by members or committee members, that has been awarded to the following individuals:

• John Whitehead
• Peter Tanham
• Kevin Holtom
• Lesley Meaney
• John Guilfoyle
• David Craig
• Richard Verboon
• Shelley Hatton
• Les Stewart
• Barbara Pellick
• David Corney

Busselton Jetty Swim 3.6km

  • AMBASSADOR in 2026. This race around the longest timber-piled jetty in the S. hemisphere (1,841m long) and has been growing in popularity over the 31 years - now attracting over 5,000 participants annually - with over 1,000 on the waitlist for 2026.

External links

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