‘You just do it’: Bravery award for flood rescuer
A man whose quick thinking helped save a woman stranded in a flooded creek has been awarded a bravery decoration for his “unforeseen courage”.
Martin Lloyd would rather not remember a fateful day during the deadly 2022 floods but the Queenslander is being acknowledged for his bravery.
Mr Lloyd, his wife and friends had lunch at their MP Creek home in the South Burnett region on March 6, 2022, as rain pelted down during a storm, causing creek levels to rise.
When lunch finished, Mr Lloyd and his wife decided to drive to a nearby flood crossing to check on the water levels, only to discover their friends had been washed off the causeway.
The car with a man inside was nowhere to be seen, but the woman was clinging to a tree about 20 metres downstream in the middle of the fast-flowing creek.
Quick-thinking Mr Lloyd and his wife rushed home, where he grabbed a rope and she called triple zero.
He tied one end of the rope to a tree and the other to his waist, wading out into the ferocious water before looping the line around a tree and guiding the woman back to safety.
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Not once did Mr Lloyd think about the risk to his own safety.
“I’m a volunteer firefighter. I’ve been doing that for 36 years, so you get to do silly things at times,” he said.
“You don’t think about it. You just do it.”
State Emergency Service swift water crews arrived to help search for the woman’s husband and the car but sadly, the man was found dead several hours later.
The 2022 floods were among the worst recorded in Australia, with widespread damage from Gympie in Queensland to parts of Sydney, NSW, resulting in 32 lives lost.
Thousands of homes were destroyed across the two states, particularly in NSW’s Northern Rivers, where an unprecedented flood event cut off the town of Lismore for days and caused food and water shortages.
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Mr Lloyd said being awarded an Australian Bravery Decoration came as a “surprise” but brought back the traumatic emotions from that day.
“It has brought back a lot of bad memories,” he said.
He is among more than 30 people being recognised by Governor-General Sam Mostyn on Monday for their “compassion” and “humanity”.
“The exceptional people we honour today answered a call to defend and protect with unforeseen courage,” Ms Mostyn said.
“Through their actions, they tell us we all matter and that all our lives are precious.”
Other recipients include three girls – Chantelle Sims and Tyra and Aaliah Johnson – who tried to save their mother after their stepfather poured petrol and set her on fire at their Albanvale home in Victoria in 2022.
South Australian man Joshua Smith rescued two children in Wingfield in 2022 after he saw a woman allegedly stabbing them on the side of the road.
He managed to disarm her and flag down passing motorists for help.
-with AAP
