Honouring One of our Diggers
We don't often get the chance to honour our own diggers here at home for something spectacular or worth honouring. Bruce Holla was out for his regular cycling exercise last year when he noticed something not quite right. This is his story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did... and thanks for letting us know.
I was starting to train in my normal cycling regime as my "Physiotherapist Clare Reason" had given me permission to start training again and after a small ride around the weir loop in Maryborough,I was on my way to finish the ride and traveling across the Lamington bridge, I noticed something odd in the middle of the river at first I though the police were diving in the river as an exercise, how wrong was I, after riding the the waters edge in great haste, I noticed it was high tide, I noticed a woman and her child distressed saying our family is on the boat and its sinking and they could not swim, I asked if they had ropes and such, they mother/daughter, said no.
I heard a police car coming towards our location with sirens blaring, upon their arrival two officers, one a woman and an gentleman exited the car, I started to formulate a plan to assist the people in the middle of the river as this was time sensitive as they were being sucked out from the boat ramp in a fast flowing tide, in an area known for Bull Sharks and Crocodiles to be, in this event its was luckily they were stopped before they got to the large opening of water in the river, thankfully due to our actions this happened (Me, the Police Officers and a Civilian).
Maybe an F.O.I or R.T.I might help with the report that was written by the police. Maryborough Station might be able to help with the perspective and credible source written by the QLD police officers in a attendance they were so helpful.
The male Officer and I took off some clothing as its a river and its muddy, I started running to the waters edge to dive in with the officer behind me yelling out to me if I could swim
I said "expletive yes" and swam with what I had left physically after my training ride and hill sprints. Upon my arrival of 100 plus meters of swimming in a river with lots of potential biting species in the river, I saw a dad holding a 3 year old, 70 year old with medical issues and 2 other children with special needs, the 70 yr old was on top of the boat that was mostly underwater the 2 special needs children was hanging on to the side of the boat speaking about crocs and sharks, I said they are sleeping right now so I redirected them to start kicking toward the shore as the dad could not do much as he was holding onto the 3 year old child and the older man was on top of the boat as he could not swim.
So as I used all of my strength to tow the boat back into shore as I could not take one by one back to the shore as it was to far and potentially I was hoping this sinking boat was not going to sink as the bubble at the bow was keeping up, as long as the family didn't turn the boat over we had a chance.
So upon the slow and nervous journey to river bank, the police officer and the civilian swam out to assist and finally got to the shore realizing the river was moving fast and I held onto the mangroves whilst everyone disembarked on to shore.
I was trying to keep it light, made some jokes keep everyone light in humor, as I was running on adrenaline as you would imagine. I heard the older man was struggling to breathe he has emphysema (COPD), I gave instruction to raise his arms to promote oxygen into the air ways (nursey thing) before medical attention arrived and calm the shock in him and also which was in me too.
I made a hasty exit from the location, I had cycling clothes on that looked like something out of Borat the movie, and I had a mud and the smell was awful, so upon my departure I spoke to my wife and said to her I had a swim she was perplexed until I told her. The police officers took my details and said someone was going to contact me with this valor I didn't hear anything and that was ok, but this was to crazy not to tell this true story maybe a moral booster ex service personnel not to jump into a river with teeth, then again I would of done it any way, I am an ordinary man in a difficult situation, we all do it one way or another i did not expect this on that day.
The event happened on the 25th of September 2018 it was a couple of months after I sustained an injury cycling in July (which a motorist opened his door lets just say I broke his car). This is in legal hands at present so Ill keep all that off the air.
My race bike (Cycling) is in the background in the photo, whilst I attend to the old gentleman at the time I was a third year nursing student at USC (University of Sunshine Coast)
Here is a link to the news paper article that highlighted that I was apart of including; a police officer and another civilian that helped this family out.
https://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/news/rescue-operation-mary-river-after-boat-capsizes/3533317/
An Update on Bruce Holla
Bruce has been nominated to receive a Queensland Bravery Award for rescuing two adults and three children when their small boat capsized in the Mary River at Maryborough last year.
Please accept our apologies for this website being woefully out of date. Sadly our webmaster Peter Newland passed away last year, and we've been battling passwords and access privileges since then. Hopefully we can start getting caught up again soon.
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