THE ROYAL HUMANE SOCIETY OF AUSTRALASIA ANNUAL BRAVERY AWARDS PRESENTATION

THE ROYAL HUMANE SOCIETY OF AUSTRALASIA
ANNUAL BRAVERY AWARDS PRESENTATION

Eleven people of Victoria will be presented with bravery awards of The Royal Humane Society of Australasia.

The Society awards – 1 Silver Medal, 7 Bronze Medals, and 3 Certificates of Merit - will be presented by The Honourable Linda Dessau AC, Governor of Victoria.

Awards recognize rescues from:

• assault and armed assailants
• car accidents
• attempted suicide
• the sea and surf
• burning houses
• a train

Details of the rescues are attached.

THE ROYAL HUMANE SOCIETY OF AUSTRALASIA
AWARD RECIPIENTS 2018

To receive the Certificate of Merit

1. JAKE ADAM COOPER, of Apollo Bay

in going to the rescue of a man from drowning at Apollo Bay Main Beach on 3 January 2016.

At 10.30am despite the beach being closed due to a very strong easterly wind and dangerous waves a man was swimming when he was pushed close to the long rock wall that runs along to the harbour entrance.

Mr Cooper was on a rescue board out the back of the surf break and saw the man was in trouble. He paddled across to him and for 15 minutes tried to paddle back to shore but the swell was too strong.

Mr Cooper managed to paddle with the man away from the rock wall and paddled towards a concrete wall near the end of the pier where there was a ladder leading into the water. Mr Cooper helped the man onto the ladder to safety.

To receive the Bronze Medal:

2. PHILIP ROSS SMITH
3. JAKE KEMSHALL DONOVAN

in going to the rescue of numerous people from a man who was violent and suffering hallucinations from the effects of ICE at Port Melbourne on 7 December 2014.

At 9.20pm paramedics were called to a restaurant in regard to a man affected by ICE. Mr Donovan attended to him and as the man was being escorted outside he ran away.

Mr Smith who was off-duty at the time decided to assist.

The man ran to a house and used his body to smash open the front door and gained access. Messrs Donovan and Smith followed and yelled out a warning to the occupants of the house to escape and three people fled the house from via the rear courtyard. Messrs Smith and Donovan found the man in the kitchen where he had picked up two kitchen knives which he brandished at the two men.

The man ran out of the house with Messrs Smith and Donovan in pursuit.

The man ran to another house holding one of the stolen knives and bashed his head and shoulder into the door and made a hole in the door large enough to squeeze through. The occupants of the house a man and his wife and son barricaded themselves in the son’s bedroom. Once inside the man approached the bedroom door and attempted to force entry.

For 15 minutes Messrs Smith and Donovan talked to the man and he finally agreed to walk outside the house where he was taken into custody.

To receive the Bronze Medal:

4. IAN JAMES McBAIN, of Sebastopol

in going to the rescue of a man from a burning unit at Sebastopol on 7 March 2017.

At 11.40pm Mr McBain ran outside to a nearby burning unit which he knew was occupied by a disabled man.

Mr McBain saw that the front door was open and he entered the unit which was full of smoke. He heard moaning coming from the lounge room floor and located the man.

As the laundry windows exploded Mr McBain grabbed the man and dragged him out the front door to safety just before the roof of the unit collapsed.

To receive the Bronze Medal:

5. JAMIE DAVID GRANT, of Glenlyon
6. DANIEL JOHN O’CONNOR, of Creswick

in going to the rescue of a man from a crashed and burning car at Newlyn on 20 October 2016.

At 6.20pm a car collided with a tree and Messrs Grant and O’Connor witnessed the collision and stopped to render assistance.

Mr Grant went to a nearby farmhouse to obtain a fire extinguisher whilst Mr O’Connor ran to the burning car in an attempt to free the driver. The driver’s side window was down and Mr O’Connor tried to rouse the driver who was unresponsive and trapped as the front of the car had collapsed over his legs.

Mr Grant returned with the fire extinguisher but it made little impact on the burning car.

Both men were unable to open the doors as they were jammed due to the collision and once the fuel tank ignited they were forced to move away.

Emergency services arrived shortly afterwards but sadly the driver died in the accident.

To receive the Bronze Medal:

7. BENJAMIN ANDREW DENNIS, of San Remo

in going to the rescue of a man who had fallen off the Newhaven Jetty, Phillip Island on 11 December 2016.

At 7.00pm a man was fishing when he fell into the water off the Newhaven Jetty. He could not swim and was being swept away due to the strong tide in an area of Westernport Bay known as “The Narrows”.

Mr Dennis who was nearby, jumped into the water with an esky and swam to the drowning man. He tried to hold his head out of the water as man was losing consciousness. He became difficult for Mr Dennis to hold especially as the esky had filled with water and sunk. After 5 minutes Mr Dennis began to tire and called out for help as both men were carried 200m further into Westernport Bay.

Two men heard his cries and quickly launched their boat and went to the aid of Mr Dennis and the drowning man. They helped both men into their boat and the rescued man regained consciousness.

To receive the Certificate of Merit:

8. ROLF HINZ, of Narre Warren North

in going to the rescue of a boy from suicide on the Westernport Highway overpass on the South Gippsland Freeway on 19 November 2017.

At 12.00pm a boy walked up the South Gippsland onramp to the Westernport Highway Overpass. Once there he scaled the concrete barrier and once on the other side he stood there contemplating jumping from the overpass.

Mr Hinz was travelling on the Westernport Highway when he saw the boy. He stopped his car and then crossed two lanes of traffic and entered the emergency lane of the bridge and approached the concrete barrier which the boy had climbed over and began to converse and negotiate with him.

The police arrived on the overpass and appeared to distract the boy momentarily. Mr Hinz grabbed onto the boy to prevent him from jumping or falling from and placed his own safety at risk as the relatively low height of the concrete barrier would have made it feasible for him to come to significant harm.

The boy was finally restrained by the police and Mr Hinz and taken to safety.

To receive the Bronze Medal:

9. GREGORY JOHN TANNER, of Elwood

in going to the rescue of a man who had been hit by a train at Windsor Railway Station on 20 October 2017.

At 11.30am a man climbed down from the platform and moved across the racks and began to climb through the gap in the carriages of a parked train on the other side. The train started to move and the man fell from the train onto the tracks and his leg was amputated by the train just below the knee.

Mr Tanner jumped down onto the tracks and took off his belt and wrapped it tightly around the man’s thigh as he was bleeding profusely.

During this time a train came through on the opposite line and Mr Tanner directed people on the platform to organise for the trains to be stopped on the side where he and the injured man were situated.

Shortly afterward the man was conveyed to hospital.

To receive the Silver Medal:

10. CHRIS RAYNOR, of Frankston South

in going to the rescue of a girl from a burning house at Frankston South on 4 July 2018.

At 11.00pm Mr Raynor was alerted to a house fire when he heard screams coming from the house across the road and saw a red glow from the front lower lounge room window.

He saw a woman on the balcony of the 2nd floor of the burning house who had accidentally locked herself out. She therefore could not reach her granddaughter who was in the living room upstairs.

Mr Raynor entered the burning house by kicking and forcing open the locked front door. He entered the house and had to keep low to the floor in order to limit his exposure to the smoke and heat which were emanating from the fire burning in an adjacent room.

He ran up the stairs to a living room where he found the girl lying on the floor unresponsive. Mr Raynor picked her up and carried her downstairs and outside to fire service personnel.

The fire brigade then rescued the girl’s grandmother and extinguished the fire.

Mr Raynor suffered from exposure to the smoke and potentially toxic products of combustion whilst inside the premises.

To receive the Certificate of Merit:

11. LANDON VULIC, of Seaford

in going to the rescue of a woman from attempting suicide in the Yarra River on 9 January 2018.

Sometime after 7pm Mr Vulic noticed a girl on the footpath of King Street Bridge, near the Melbourne Aquarium. She climbed over the rail and jumped into the river approximately 8m below. She started to struggle to stay afloat and her head went under the water on several occasions.

Mr Vulic ran to the bridge on the Southbank side and dived in and swam out to the girl some 20-30m. He grabbed hold of her under the arm pits while she struggled against him. Mr Vulic swam 5-10m to the base of a pylon just using his legs to swim. He climbed onto the pylon and as he did so the girl tried to get away. He grabbed her again and lifted her out of the water.

He continued to hold and console the girl until the police arrived.