ANNUAL BRAVERY AWARDS PRESENTATION
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Four (4) residents of Queensland will be presented with bravery awards of The Royal Humane Society of Australasia: on Friday 16 April 2004 at Government House, Queensland at 11.00am and 3.00pm |
At 11.00am the Silver Medal of the Society and the 2003 Rupert Wilks Trophy for the most outstanding act of bravery by a child 12 years of age or younger is to be presented to Master Kaleb Robson. The Bronze Medal of the Society is to be presented to Master Luke Chebatte.
At 3.00pm Bronze Medals will be presented to Ms Julie Scott and Mr Peter Turnbull.
These medals will be presented by Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce, AC, Governor of Queensland.
The awards recognize rescues from electrocution, drowning and from a crashed burning car.
Details of the rescues are attached.
Contact: Colin Bannister (Secretary) (03) 9650 3233
Note: The Royal Humane Society of Australasia, formed in 1874, is concerned with giving public recognition to acts of bravery by making awards to those who risk their own lives to save the lives of others.
Over 7,450 awards have been made in the Society’s 129 years’ history.
LUKE CHEBATTE, student, aged 12 years, of Nudgee, Qld, in going to the rescue of his younger brother from drowning at the Geebung Special School, Geebung, Qld on 19 October 2002.
Luke is a boy with Down Syndrome. At the time of the rescue Luke’s parents were at a working bee at the school and the nearest adult was in a room 10m away.
His younger brother fell into the unsupervised pool where the water depth was well over his head. Luke immediately made a conscious decision to jump into the water after his younger brother and dragged him to the side of the pool to safety.
KALEB LARS ROBSON, aged 5 years, of Woodhill, Qld, in going to the rescue of his mother from drowning/electrocution at his Woodhill home on 23 July 2000.
At about 11.25 Kaleb’s father and grandfather were draining an ornamental concrete fish pond at their house, using an electric pump connected by a lead to a power point in the nearby car port but which had no earth connection. The depth of water in the pool was about 70cms.
Kaleb and his 2 years old sister were watching their father and grandfather clean the pond and saw their father enter the pond, slip on the edge into the water, probably grasp the pump which also fell into the water and continued running, resulting in the water being electrically charged to a potentially lethal level. All that could be seen of Mr Robson were his legs flapping in the water. Mr Robson (senior) went to his son’s aid and disappeared below the surface.
The children ran screaming to their mother who rushed to the pond and entered it. Immediately she was paralysed, with her eyes, nose and mouth just out of the water.
Kaleb saw what happened and ran to get a rope which he threw to his mother, shouting, “Get the rope, Mum”. The rope fell short of his mother but with Kaleb’s second throw Mrs Robson forced all her energy to move her hand to just grasp the rope whereupon Kaleb and his sister pulled their mother to the edge, helped her out of the water and, on Mrs Robson’s instruction, Kaleb ran to switch off the power then to ring 000 to summon an ambulance. Kaleb then waited at the roadside to direct the ambulance crew to the scene.
Regrettably neither father nor grandfather responded to resuscitation attempts.
JULIE SCOTT, registered nurse, aged 44 years, of North Rockhampton, Qld, and;
PETER TURNBULL, retired, aged 54 years, of Nanango, Qld, in going to the rescue of a woman trapped in her crashed and burning car at Nanango on 30 September 2002.
At approx 1.40pm a driver lost control of a vehicle and it rolled 360º before coming to a stop on the Brooklands Road, Nanango.
Mr Turnbull was first on the scene and attempted to get the injured driver out but was hampered by the doors being jammed. At this stage the engine had caught on fire.
Ms Scott came to assist Mr Turnbull by forcing the driver’s door open to find that the occupant’s right foot was trapped under the brake pedal.
By this stage the fire was coming through the fire wall of the car. Finally Ms Scott and Mr Turnbull were able to drag the injured driver from the car which shortly afterwards was totally engulfed in flames and exploded.