ANNUAL BRAVERY AWARDS PRESENTATION

The awards, 3 Bronze Medals and 3 Certificates of Merit will be presented by His Excellency Mr John Landy, MBE Governor of Victoria.

The awards recognize rescues from assault, a crashed vehicle, a house fire and from drowning in the sea.

Details of the rescues are below.

Media representatives will be welcomed from 9.30am

Contact: Colin Bannister (Secretary) (03) 9650 3233

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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 7,300 awards have been made in the Society's 127 years' history.

THE ROYAL HUMANE SOCIETY OF AUSTRALASIA

MEDALS AND CERTIFICATES OF MERIT

Awarded 2000-2001

BRONZE MEDAL
JAMES CHRISTOPHER HAWKINS, student, aged 20 years, of Toorak, Vic, in going to the rescue of a man whose car had plunged off a bridge and into the Derwent River at Bridgewater, Tas, on 2 February 1999.

At about 6pm as Mr Hawkins was driving across a bridge, a utility in front of him swerved then veered across to the right, breaking the railing of the bridge and falling into the water. The utility submerged immediately.

Mr Hawkins stopped his car, saw the driver emerge from the car and flounder in the water. He jumped approx 5m into the water to help the driver. After confirming with the drowning man that there was no one else in the utility, Mr Hawkins swam, towing the injured man, 35m to the bank of the Western causeway. The water at the time was described as deep, cold and murky.

CERTIFICATE OF MERIT
FRANK HOLDSWORTH, of Manangatang, Vic and;

CERTIFICATE OF MERIT
LESLIE HAROLD BUDDE, of Manangatang, Vic
in going to the rescue of an elderly man from his burning home at Manangatang on 25
June 2000.

At about 9.45am Messrs Holdsworth and Budde were alerted to a house fire. Both men ran across the road and saw smoke coming from the roof of a neighbour's house. They tried to enter through the back door but were confronted with thick black smoke. Mr Budde ran to the front of the house, opened the door, crawled into the house and by feeling with his hands located the elderly occupant on the kitchen floor.

Mr Budde was unable to pull the man out of the house on his own and he called to Mr Holdsworth to help. Mr Holdsworth crawled into the kitchen and they each took one of the man's legs and dragged him out of the house.

Unfortunately the man died two days later.

BRONZE MEDAL
JASON PATRICK HEDGES, student, aged 17 years, of Port Fairy, Vic in going to the rescue of a man from drowning at "The Passage", Port Fairy on 1 July 2000.

At about 7.00am Mr Hedges and a friend were surfing. His friend suffered an epileptic fit and Mr Hedges saw him floating face down in the water near his board. Mr Hedges reached his friend and placed him on his board and started mouth-to-mouth resuscitation without any success as there were too many waves.

Mr Hedges then started to paddle towards shore with his friend on his own board and towing the other board as well. During this time Mr Hedges was hit on the head several times by the extra board. Mr Hedges then dived under to avoid some large waves and was held down by his friend's weight but finally managed to reach the surface.

He then saw another car in the car park and attracted the attention of Mr Bencraft who paddled out to him. Mr Bencraft put the drowned man on his board and they paddled to some rocks and continued CPR but the man did not respond.

Conditions at the time were described as cold and windy with the waves ragged.

BRONZE MEDAL
ROBERT SAMUEL BARRETT, sheet metal worker, aged 40 years, of Boolarra, Vic,
and;
CERTIFICATE OF MERIT
JILLIAN BARRETT, fish sorter, aged 39 years, of Boolarra
in going to the rescue of their neighbour from the armed attack of a youth at Boolarra on
15 October 2000.

At 6.00am Mr Barrett was woken by the sounds of breaking glass and splintering wood as a youth broke into his neighbour's unit, shouting abuse. Mr Barrett went to his neighbour's unit and saw the two men wrestling. He applied a bear hug on the youth and told him to go home which the youth did.

Some 15 minutes later however, he returned. Mr Barrett saw the youth remove a large (40cms) carving knife from his jacket and enter the unit, confronting the neighbour with the knife and threatening to kill him. He followed the youth and grabbed him from behind, pulled him backwards off-balance into a chair and continued to hold him.

Mrs Barrett then entered the unit and ran to her husband's aid. She grasped the assailant's wrist, telling him to drop the knife and told the neighbour to leave for his own safety. Mr and Mrs Barrett then continued to try to calm the youth, who, once disarmed, fled home.