THE ROYAL HUMANE SOCIETY OF AUSTRALASIA INC
ANNUAL BRAVERY AWARDS INVESTITURE

Ten people of Queensland will be presented with bravery awards of The Royal Humane Society of Australasia.

The Society awards – Five Silver Medals, Three Bronze Medals and Two Certificates of Merit will be presented by The Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, Councillor Adrian Schrinner.

Awards recognized rescues from:

• The sea
• Shark attack
• Rapid River Ride, Dreamworld
• Burning house
• Crashed and burning car

Details of the rescues are attached.

THE ROYAL HUMANE SOCIETY OF AUSTRALASIA INC
QUEENSLAND INVESTITURE – FRIDAY 19 MAY 2023
CITATIONS

To Receive the Silver Medal:

1. GREGORY CAMPBELL, Police Officer

2. RYAN BADGER, Police Officer

3. MATHEW REEVES, Police Officer

To Receive the Bronze Medal:

4. TRENT OSBORNE, Police Officer

In going to the rescue of a man from drowning in the surf at Surfers Paradise, Qld on 12 February 2015.

At 8.30pm Mr Taylor saw a man at Surfers Paradise Beach stumbling in the shallows and then fall face down in the water for a period of time. Mr Taylor managed to pull the unconscious man from the water and was about to commence CPR when the man jumped up and ran back into the ocean stating that he wanted to drown himself. Mr Taylor went into the water and stayed with the man.

S/C Campbell, S/C Osborne, S/C Badger and Former C Reeves attended the scene and S/C Badger and Former C Reeves entered the water in an attempt to bring Mr Taylor and the man back to shore. At this stage they were about 50-100m off-shore.

S/C Badger had a flotation device which the man refused to take and threw it away before swimming further out.

Former C Reeves then returned to shore to provide the other police officers with a sit rep as those in the water had drifted further out into the ocean.

During this time the man became extremely aggressive towards S/C Badger and Mr Taylor, lashing out at them and continually trying to swim further out to sea but after 30 minutes the man allowed S/C Badger and Mr Taylor to guide him towards the shore.

After returning to the shallows, S/C Campbell attended the location on a surfboard and positioned himself behind the man and attempted to push him towards the shoreline. However, the man turned around, lashed out and commenced swimming further out once again. He then started to tire and returned to the shallows.

They all reached a sand bank with the man still physically fighting in chest-deep water. C Osborne and Former C Reeves waded out to assist with the apprehension of the man. The man continued to fight and pulled C Osborne under the water before being finally brought to shore.

(Unfortunately, Mr Taylor is unable to attend the ceremony)

To Receive the Bronze Medal:

5. STEVEN JOHN APTHORP, Chef, aged 39 years, of Ulladulla, NSW

To Receive the Certificate of Merit:

6. JOHN ROBERT CLARK, First-aid officer, aged 50 years, of Runaway Bay, NSW

In going to the rescue of six people from an upturned boat on the Rapid River Ride at Dreamworld, Gold Coast, Qld on 21 October 2016.

At approximately 2pm, a raft on the Thunder River Rapids Ride, travelled through the ride without incident until it approached the passenger unload area, where it collided with a second raft causing it to invert and get caught between the conveyor and the steel railings.

Mr Apthorpe climbed down into the water trough in chest-deep water where he located a woman and commenced CPR and was joined by Mr Clark. They were able to move the woman onto a ramp where they continued CPR until emergency services arrived. Sadly, the woman passed away at the scene.

To Receive the Silver Medal:

7. ZANE HALL, Aged 14 years, of Tweed Heads, NSW

In going to the rescue of a man who had been attacked by a shark at Greenmount Beach, Coolangatta, Qld on 8 August 2020.

At 5.00pm a man was surfing when he was attacked by what is believed to be a Great White Shark measuring approximately 3.4-3.6m in length. The shark bit the man on the upper left thigh severing his leg.

Zane Hall was surfing near the man at the time and saw the shark and tried to alert him.

Another surfer Ms Bain, heard someone call out “shark” and she saw a man floating face down in the water about 20m away. She swam over to him and in chest-deep water held onto him until she received assistance to put him on a surfboard.

She was then helped by another surfer to bring the badly injured man to shore where he sadly passed away

(Unfortunately, Ms Bain is unable to attend the ceremony)

To Receive the Bronze Medal:

8. SHANE PAUL WILLIAMS, Aged 55 years, of Beerburrum, Qld

In going to the rescue of a woman from her burning home at Beerburrum on 18 March 2020.

At 5.45pm a woman was in the main bedroom of her residence when she attempted to set up and light an aroma therapy oil burner which she dropped and it ignited. The flames then quickly ignited the room.

Mr Williams was alerted by the smoke detector beeping in the woman’s house and he entered the building with a small fire extinguisher. He went through to the main bedroom and realised that the flames were too large for the small extinguisher and exited the house.

Mr Williams took a couple of deep breaths and went back in to look for the woman. He got to her bedroom door and yelled out to her and he then found her on the floor of the bedroom. He bent down and picked the woman up and carried her outside through very thick smoke.

Sadly, the woman passed away.

To Receive the Bronze Medal:

9. ROBERT MEDARIS, Business Analyst, aged 53 years, of NSW

In going to the rescue of two women from drowning at Surfers Paradise, Qld on 10 December 2020.

At 6.00am Mr Medaris heard two girls screaming for help in the water about 80m from shore after they were swept out by currents.

Mr Medaris swam out to the girl who was further out and grabbed her by the hand and took her to shore.

He then swam out to the other girl who was close to exhaustion and brought her to safety.

To Receive the Certificate of Merit:

10. ALEXANDER DAVID STEWART, Aged 38 years

In going to the rescue of two people from their crashed and burning car at Harvey, WA on 12 March 2022.

At 10.28am a man was towing a large caravan along the South Western Highway, Harvey.

The vehicle jack-knifed after the caravan clipped an arm-cove barrier. The vehicle and caravan rolled, coming to rest across both lanes of the South Western Highway with the vehicle laying on its side. The caravan was completely obliterated.

Mr Stewart and another man were first on the scene and attempted to remove both a man and a woman from the overturned vehicle.

Two Police Officers arrived on the scene as flames could be seen from the engine bay of the vehicle and both the husband and wife were trapped inside.

One of the Police Officers kicked in the windscreen and tore it away to get access to the cabin. He reached inside the burning vehicle to free the woman and with the assistance of the others they pulled her through the windscreen to safety.

The fire had engulfed the cabin and Mr Stewart and the others all worked frantically to free the driver. However, they could not release him from his seatbelt and he was suspended in the air with his leg trapped between the steering wheel and the dash.

All the rescuers started to cough from the smoke and intense heat. One of the Police Officers cut the man’s seat-belt with a knife and he was removed through windscreen to a safe distance.

Six seconds later an explosion was heard and the vehicle became fully engulfed in flames.

The caravan contained large butane/propane gas cylinders and numerous explosions occurred following the rescues.

(The other award recipients involved in this incident received their awards at Government House, Perth)