General News
2 August, 2024
Dunolly local awarded for bravery
Many define the ‘Australian Spirit’ with characteristics like courage, integrity and mateship, characteristics Dunolly resident Peter McClelland showed during an incident on March 27, 2020.
While travelling on the Dunolly-Moliagul Road, Peter came across a single-car accident with a woman trapped inside the vehicle.
“It was just coming onto the evening and I was coming home from checking sheep in Birchip, and I thought ‘somebody has lit a fire off the road’,” he said.
“Next thing I know there was a kid in the middle of the road, and she told me that her mum was still in the car.
“Your gut feeling is you have got to help, you can’t let people just sit there.
“I went to try and pull her out but the car was on fire and then Greg Keegan came along and we tried to pull her out but we just couldn’t get her legs out and the fire got too much for us.
Tragically, the heroics of Mr McClelland and Moliagul resident Mr Keegan were unable to save the driver, who died at the scene.
To commemorate their efforts, Tarnagulla Police Senior Constable Denis Farrell nominated the pair for the Royal Humane Society’s Bronze Medal for Bravery, introduced in 1837 to award people “who have put their own lives at great risk to save or attempt to save someone else”.
“When I made my statement, [Constable Farrell] said ‘I will put you in for this award’ and I thought that he shouldn’t worry about it — I’m just a normal person, I would do the same for somebody else,” Mr McClelland said.
“They asked me to go to Government House and I didn’t want to go because of the hustle and bustle and as a country boy I don’t want to go to the city.”
Despite his reservations, Mr McClelland attended the ceremony in June, an experience he said made him more appreciative of the award.
“I thought there would be 100 people receiving awards but there were only ten of us there including three policemen, so you don’t get an award like this given out every day,” he said.
“[The medal] means something now, I have never had a medal before and I haven’t got much of a chest to put one on.”