Tales from the frontline – the horrors endured by our first responders on any given day
The horrors revealed by the Hannah Clarke inquiry are not confined to the tragedy of the victims. It’s also provided a harrowing insight into the things our first responders have to deal with daily, writes Madonna King.
It’s almost impossible to grasp the grief around Hannah Clarke’s brutal murder. The fear she must have felt. The agony she must have endured. The heartbreak, at knowing she’d lost her children, in her final hours.
And every day of this Coroners Court hearing, our resolve to curtail the ballooning domestic violence that is taking up half of all police resources in some regions should get stronger.
For Hannah. For the three gorgeous children who have lost their futures, at the hands of their father. And for Sue and Lloyd Clarke, who wake each morning reliving a day the rest of us find unimaginable.
And there’s another cohort of people, who go about their job too often without thanks, but who also lost something of themselves on that morning in February two years ago.
Those first on the scene, whose accounts this week are as confronting as they are heartbreaking. Some of those became involved simply because of their geography. They lived in the house where Hannah stopped, screaming for help. They were driving along a suburban Camp Hill street, when implausible evil stole the mundane school run. In the wrong place, at the wrong time.
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Some have moved from the area; the memory of that morning too difficult to erase. Some will never be able to soften the memory which saw a wonderful mother being hosed down in a bid to keep her alive. And all the time, her whip smart brain was focused on providing the evidence needed by police and her heart with the children she could not save.
We owe those neighbours and commuters an untold and ongoing gratitude. Surely, at the very least, we will see their names on the list of honours and bravery awards handed out at Government House.
But there’s another group of people too, who go about their day, every day, trying to make life bearable for those strangers they are called to meet.
Our first responders. Our firefighters, like 30-year veteran Anthony Eggins, who was called to the blaze by emergency bells sounding at the station. Arriving, knowing it was too late for Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey, who had already been engulfed by flames. They might be trained for almost everything, but how do you get over that?
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Our police officers, like Senior Constable Angus Skaines, who was in the area when he was diverted to the scene. He talked to Hannah, as she was being hosed down by a nurse, and told us all how brave and focused she was. Thank you Jane Bentley, our deputy state coroner, for taking the time to recognise Constable Skaines. That’s the least we can do.
And those who hosed Hannah down, praying like hell it would work, thank you too. One was a nurse, but that shouldn’t be in any job description.
Dr Stephen Rashford is the QAS medical director and well-known for his masterly work. But what did he see as the first priority? “To anaesthetise her very early to take away any distress and pain,’’ he said. And when he was asked about their last conversation, he declined politely. He wanted to respect her, even in death.
You can teach medicine. But you can’t always grow a heart. He admitted the conversation with Hannah was difficult, but wanted to focus on her courage.
His officers and the paramedics who attended that scene, like Stephanie Ring who had just completed a 13-hour shift, gives you faith in humanity at a time when so much effort is being put into taking it away.
But what are we doing for them? Those who witness pure evil and who front up to work, again the next day, not knowing what human cruelty is in store for them.
How do we say thanks to those involved in Hannah Clarke’s case, and the case involving the couple tethered together in a Kingaroy Dam, or that backyard murder-suicide on the Sunshine Coast? Or those called to this week’s house fires or domestic violence assaults or fiery car crashes?
Most of our first responders, like those who teach our children each day, are paid a pittance. And since Covid and a spike in drug use, they are also routinely abused and assaulted as they go about their job.
That’s got to stop. And as the bell sounds on a federal election, and the State Government wants to take the high moral ground against a Commonwealth Government on home soil, let the auction to make their lot better begin.
It might largely be a state issue, but my vote is up for grabs. I hope yours is too.
And when we lodge those votes, instead of thinking about the cake stalls outside, let’s hope there’s something in this campaign for the first responders who only put their hand out to help.
