Young sisters and their father awarded for act of bravery along with police officers for Wilson Inset rescue

Two young girls and their father, along with two police officers, have been recognised in the 2023 Coastal Bravery Awards for their efforts in the assist and rescue of two elderly men whose boat had capsized in January last year. At 11.30am on January 18, a Triple-0 call was made by an onlooker who spotted an overturned boat with two men in the water, hanging on to the boat, about 600-700m offshore. Sergeant Matt Hartfield and First Class Constable Steve Smith attended the scene after no marine rescue services were available. But with no boat themselves, the officers got creative and dug out a kayak buried in the mud, and began rowing out to the two men in distress. “We were just patrolling Denmark, doing our routine jobs and we were called to an incident where there was a report of an upturned boat in the Wilson Inlet and two people clinging to it,” Sergeant Hartfield said at the awards ceremony. “And on arrival you could see that they were in some sort of distress, and there were some faint noises of calling for help.” “We had a bit of a look around and had to improvise, and came across a raft in extremely poor condition and we had to dig it out of some mud.” The two men in their 80s had been clinging to the boat for about 25 minutes, one suffering from an injured shoulder, while their dog, Penny, sat on top of the overturned boat. Maya, 10, Samara, 12, and Martin Dunkerley spotted the activity from their home and set out in their small inflatable zodiac to assist. Approaching the scene Maya jumped into the water along with Mr Dunkerley and First Class Constable Smith to assist with one of the men struggling to stay afloat. Sergeant Hartfield assisted the other man and Samara tied the boats together to stop them from floating away. While they managed to pull one of the elderly men out of the water to safety, they had difficulty rescuing the other man from the water. At Samara’s suggestion, she and Mr Dunkerley sped back to their house to retrieve a surfboard for the 83-year-old was laid on to and he was swam back ashore by First Class Constable Smith and Mr Dunkerley. The two men were taken by ambulance to hospital once out of the water. Maya and Samara received a Bronze Medallion for Courage Youth Award, Mr Dunkerley receiving the Silver Medallion for Bravery Citizens Award, and the two officers received the Silver Medallion for Bravery Emergency Services Award. “We think the award’s awesome and the acknowledgement is awesome,” Sergeant Hartfield said. “But we’re going to be out there today, tomorrow we’re going to be back out there, and the next day, doing the same thing and try and keep that community safe.”