Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The 12-month anniversary of the natural disaster that devastated my community is coming up on 28 February. There are a number of events happening to commemorate this, including a medal presentation to thank what was dubbed 'our tinny army'. There's also been a short film made, called TinnyHeroes, which will be launched that week as well, and I want to talk about that film.

Before I do, I want to remind the House of the circumstances that created this crisis. On Sunday night, 27 February, as people were going to bed the Bureau of Meteorology were predicting a flood of 11½ metres in Lismore. That's under the 12.2 metre record level, and people were confident. They'd prepared their businesses; they'd lifted stock. People had prepared homes, and they knew what level—literally what step—it would come up to at 11.5 metres if it came up the steps to their house.

People in the early morning hours started to get woken by water streaming and gushing into their homes. The flood level, at about one to two in the morning, had been revised to 14.5 metres. That's three metres higher than what people thought when they were going to bed, and it was over two metres higher than we'd ever seen before. We did not have a flood happening; we had a natural disaster occurring, which we had never seen or experienced before. All this, in the dark of night.

The immediate crisis was that thousands of people were at risk of drowning in their homes. People were scrambling into roof cavities and onto roofs. It was a desperate situation. Then, they arrived. Instinctively, intuitively, over 200 local heroes got into their tinnies, kayaks, jet skis and anything else that floated and started rescuing people, literally saving their neighbours', their friends' and their families' lives.

Make no mistake, they were putting themselves at great risk. This was an angry, swollen river moving very quickly. It was dark, the storm still raging and the rain was falling heavily. But out they went, saving person after person, family after family. Four fatalities happened. They are all tragic, but it was a miracle there were so few.

Susanna Freymark, who was an editor of Indy.com, an online news page, and her co-director Jimmy Malecki have produced a film telling just some of the courageous and miraculous stories. The flood moved through Lismore and went downstream and caused great destruction in villages such as Coraki, Woodburn, Broadwater, Wardell and others.

Bob May, an 84-year-old from Woodburn—I know Bob very well—inspired Susanna to create the film because Bob approached Susanna and asked if she could put a call out on her website asking if anyone knew the identity of the two men that rescued him. So, through Susanna's call-out, Bob was able to meet and thank the two men that, as he said, saved his life. The two men were Derek Stratton and Marcus Smith. Bob was the last person they rescued that night in Woodburn. They'd already rescued about 40 people before they got Bob out just before daylight.

I really want to thank Susanna and Jimmy for the job that they've done. There is going to be launch of this at Woodburn, which I'll be at on the night. I know that a lot of tears are going to be shed as we watch this, but it's important. It's important that in acknowledging the people who will feature in the film we are, in essence, acknowledging the hundreds of people who did things like them. These heroes are predominantly young men, and the majority of them are very humble. I put out a Christmas card last Christmas, and I also wanted to acknowledge the tinny army on at. I thank Luke and Todd and Danny and Nick who appeared on that. But I went to a number of them, including the young man called Matt Weir, who is the son of a friend of mine.

Matt, who was turning 21 a few days later, went out and saved a lot of people on his jet ski. When I said, 'Matt, will you come on the Christmas card? I want to thank you and, in thanking you, thank the hundreds of people who did things like you.' He said: 'Kevin, I'd do anything for you, but I don't want to do that. I'm humble. I don't want to be publicly acknowledged for this. I just went out and did what I knew I had to do.'

The film is going to open at Woodburn on 1 March. I'm looking forward to the opening of it. There are going to be screenings in Lismore from 2 to 4 March, in Coraki on 3 March and at the Commercial Hotel in Casino on 7 March. There'll be others, as well. I'm looking forward to the film. Thank you, Susannah; thank you, Jimmy; and thank you to our tinnie army.