Matt Dee, the Bondi Rescue lifeguard, has died
By Visit Bondi Beach Editorial Team ·
Part of our Bondi Rescue guide.
Matt Dee, the former Bondi Rescue lifeguard who appeared on the show from 2008 to 2017, has died. His death was announced on the morning of Wednesday 2 September 2026 on the Instagram page of FTW Revolution, the clothing label he founded and ran. His cause of death has not been made public, and the announcement said funeral arrangements will be shared once they are finalised.
- Known for
- Bondi Rescue
- On the show
- 2008 to 2017
- Announced
- 2 September 2026
- Cause
- Not made public
What happened to Matt Dee
The announcement came from FTW Revolution, the clothing brand connected to Suicide Prevention Australia that Dee founded and led as chief executive. It was posted on Wednesday morning alongside a photograph of him laughing, head thrown back, holding a beer - which is, by every account being posted today, exactly how the people who knew him want him remembered.
It is with the heaviest of hearts that we share the heartbreaking news of the passing of our Matt Dee. Matt touched the lives of many, he also did amazing work and he will be deeply missed and forever remembered by those who knew and loved him.
The same statement asked for patience with messages, said that funeral arrangements and details would be made public once they had been finalised, and pointed anyone struggling with the news toward support. No cause of death has been confirmed, and until his family chooses to say more, there is nothing further to report on that - so this page will not speculate.
Who Matt Dee was
Dee was on Bondi Rescue for nine seasons, from 2008 to 2017 - long enough that if you watched the show through its most-watched years, you knew his face. The lifeguards on that show are not actors: they are the professional beach lifeguards who work this stretch of sand every day, and Dee was one of them through a period when the show turned an ordinary Australian workplace into something people watched in more than a hundred countries.
He grew up in Melbourne, raised with his brother and sister by their single mother, and the family holidayed at Torquay - which is where he learned to surf, and how a Victorian kid ends up working the busiest beach in New South Wales.
The work he did off the beach
What Dee became known for after the show is harder to watch than any rescue on it. He lost both of his siblings within a year of each other. His older brother Jonathan, who lived with bipolar disorder, died at 34. His younger sister Rachel Bridger Dee, who had lived with schizophrenia for around a decade, died in December 2009 at 30.
He spoke about them publicly rather than privately, which is a choice, and not an easy one. In a 2011 interview with The Sun-Herald he was blunt about how he wanted his brother and sister understood:
What happened was not their fault. They did their best to manage their illnesses. It wasn't their fault. They had a problem inside their heads. It's something we don't understand. How would we know what it's like?
He went on to become an ambassador for Suicide Prevention Australia and for the Schizophrenia Research Institute, and founded FTW Revolution, a clothing label built around that advocacy. He also spoke about carrying guilt over his siblings' deaths, and the feeling that he might have done more - which is worth recording, because it is the thing so many people left behind carry silently, and he said it out loud.
Tributes from the Bondi lifeguards
Tributes filled the announcement post within hours, including from the lifeguards he worked alongside. Trent 'Maxi' Maxwell wrote 'Rest easy brother'. Ryan 'Whippet' Clark posted: 'Big love Matty Dee. You had a wild wide and you will be missed by many.' Among the hundreds of messages from people who only ever knew him through a television screen, the word that keeps coming back is that he was one of a kind.
Frequently asked questions
What happened to Matt Dee from Bondi Rescue?
Matt Dee died, with his death announced on the morning of 2 September 2026 on the Instagram page of FTW Revolution, the clothing label he founded. The announcement described him as someone who 'touched the lives of many' and said funeral arrangements would be made public once finalised.
What was Matt Dee's cause of death?
It has not been made public. No cause of death has been confirmed by his family or in any published report, and anything circulating beyond that is speculation.
When was Matt Dee on Bondi Rescue?
He appeared on Bondi Rescue from 2008 to 2017, nine seasons of the show.
How old was Matt Dee?
His age has not been stated in any of the published reports of his death. His brother Jonathan died at 34 and his sister Rachel at 30, but Dee's own age has not been confirmed, so we are not going to estimate it.
What is FTW Revolution?
It is a clothing brand connected to Suicide Prevention Australia that Matt Dee founded and ran as chief executive. He was an ambassador for Suicide Prevention Australia and for the Schizophrenia Research Institute, advocacy he took up after losing his brother and sister within a year of each other.
Was Matt Dee still a Bondi lifeguard?
He is described in reports of his death as a former Bondi Rescue lifeguard, and his time on the show ran from 2008 to 2017. The lifeguards currently patrolling Bondi are employed year-round by Waverley Council.
The lifeguards on this beach do a job most people only see the dramatic end of. If you want to know who is out there now, and what the service actually does across a season, our guide to the Bondi Rescue lifeguards is the place to start.