By Carolyn Webb
When he saw a ute on fire in Bourke Street, in Melbourne’s CBD, Rod Patterson’s first move was to run towards it, not to run away.
The car’s door was open and Patterson feared the driver had collapsed and was in danger, and so he headed to the burning wreck. Gas cylinders were exploding inside the vehicle.
Rod Patterson, who was stabbed in the head in the Bourke Street terror attack, has been given a bravery award.Credit: Ben Searcy
Patterson remembers he couldn’t see a driver. Then he was stabbed in the head.
As he lay on the road bleeding, he said goodbye to his wife, Maree.
“But it wasn’t my time to die,” Patterson says now. “I don’t know why.”
The ute that was set alight by Hassan Khalif Shire Ali.
In recognition of Patterson’s courage during what became known as the Bourke Street terror attack, he has been awarded a Bravery Medal in the 2024 Australian Bravery Decorations, to be announced on Wednesday by Governor-General Sam Mostyn.
The assailant in the incident, on November 9, 2018, was Islamic State-inspired extremist Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, who stabbed and killed Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar co-owner Sisto Malaspina, and injured security guard Shadi Helal. Shire Ali was shot by police and died in hospital.
Patterson said he would have preferred not to have qualified for the bravery award.
The four-centimetre-deep, 14-centimetre-long cut to his head slashed an artery. While the physical wounds healed, he is mentally fragile. He retired from running a car parts business and in March he and Maree moved from Launceston, Tasmania, to Torquay, Victoria, to be closer to family, for support.
“I will never forget the support from my family and friends and the Tasmanian community.”
He has frequent flashbacks, reliving the fear.
“I have different emotions than I used to have. I’m not the same person.”
Patterson doesn’t consider himself a hero and believes his instincts from previously working as a firefighter for 18 years guided him to rush towards the burning ute, to help.
Frank Catena, who rescued a neighbour from her burning house.Credit: Justin McManus
Of Shire Ali, Patterson says: “I’m working very hard not to hate, because hate is what started the whole thing.”
Among other bravery award recipients, Frank Catena was given a Commendation for Brave Conduct for rescuing a woman from her burning house on September 16, 2021.
While checking on his house being renovated in Main Street, Northcote, Catena saw smoke streaming from a house opposite. The front door was locked so he smashed a glass panel and opened it.
Flames and smoke were rolling across the ceiling and the neighbour was standing in a back room, looking for her dog. Catena guided the woman out to safety, minutes before flames engulfed the house. The dog was found alive and well outside.
Catena said he felt “incredibly honoured” by the award and that he wouldn’t hesitate to repeat his actions. “You don’t stop to think about these things.”
Ross and Andy Powell from Port Campbell Surf LIfe Saving Club.
Elsewhere, volunteer surf lifesavers Ross and Andy Powell were awarded posthumous Bravery Medals.
The father and son died at Port Campbell on Victoria’s west coast, after their boat flipped as they tried to save a tourist in rough seas on Easter Sunday in 2019.
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