Two people swept away by a landslide in a remote area of the NSW Northern Rivers region were saved by local paramedics and Army Reservists in dramatic scenes over the weekend.
With Lismore still reeling from record floods, local reservists from the 41st Battalion (41 RNSWR) were door knocking to see if residents needed assistance on Saturday when the afternoon changed dramatically.
“We got the call around 5pm, to move to the helicopter landing zone for a pickup and we had to carry 24 hours of rations and camping gear to stay out that night,” said Sergeant Joshua Scott.
“We were picked by an MRH-90 Taipan helicopter and flown out to the mountains behind Mullumbimby.”
Five reservists were on board the chopper after a local person alerted them that two neighbours – an elderly woman and middle-aged man – had been swept away by a landslide.
“As we were flying in, we realised they weren’t going to be able to land and they started pulling out the winch, winching gear,” Sergeant Scott said.
“We met up with paramedics, and they briefed us and we moved to the area where the patient was, one patient had already been pulled out.”
The reservists were able to help paramedics get the elderly woman onto a civilian rescue helicopter.
Lieutenant Ben Fischer says retrieving the male patient was a much more complicated scenario.
“He was up to his neck, there were in the house when the landslide occurred, mud, trees and branches were all around him,” Lieutenant Fischer said.
“A local used a chainsaw to cut some wood to use as a lever, it was as if the man had a wall on him and some dirt.”
With the full extent of the man’s injuries unknown, Lieutenant Fischer said the reservists and paramedics worked extremely carefully to extract the patient.
“We removed the dirt, we cut the branches, we were then able to free his upper body,” Lieutenant Fischer said.
“It felt good to get him out. He was conscious the entire time, he was of good spirits, he did not complain at all.”
With both patients rescued, the reservists spent the night in the mountains before returning to Lismore the next day.
Lieutenant Fischer said that, for him, the helicopter rescue has been his highlight of Operation Flood Assist 2022.
“I love these kind of operations and being able to give back to the community.”
“The day before we were rescuing people from floodwaters by boat.”
