First responders recount New Year Fitzroy rescue
Take a look inside the operation which saw ten rescued from Fitzroy boat crash
Rockhampton
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AS JAKE Salmon was winched down into a densley wooded section of riverbank 7km upstream from the Fitzroy River barrage, he was met by a distressing scene.
When the RACQ Capricorn Rescue crewman reached the scene of a major boat crash on the Fitzroy River on Wednesday afternoon, he quickly realised much more help was needed - and urgently.
Mr Salmon was among the first responders to the major New Years Day incident, which involved a leisure craft with 10 people on board smashing into a submerged log before being catapulted into the bank.
Mr Salmon had just returned from a rescue on Heron Island when he got the call to attend.
What they saw when they arrived at the scene was several boats attempting to enter a densely wooded area.
Not able to see through the canopy, Mr Salmon was winched down for a closer look.
"The crew and I made the call that I'd go down and have a look at the scene because it was so dense, and we couldn't see what the situation was going to be like when we got down there," he said.
"It was quite a distressing scene.
"When I arrived there were four paramedics, two swift water rescue, SES and civilians as well.
"So that compounded with 10 injured people, the children were quite distressed, especially the ones whose parents were injured."
Straight away, Mr Salmon could tell there were more patients on the ground than medical responders, so he radioed the helicopter and asked for a doctor and critical care paramedic to be sent down.
Once the doctor was on scene, a woman on her 60s with severe neck, chest and head injuries was assessed and it was decided that she would be winched out as soon as possible.
"The patient wasn't really distressed, she stayed quite still and calm," she said.
The patient and the doctor were winched to safety as Mr Salmon and the critical care paramedic stayed back to help transfer the remaining wounded onto boats with other ambulance, fire and SES crews.
Mr Salmon said it was a harmonious operation between all forms of emergency services.
"It was great to see all the different agencies working together to get the best result possible," he said.
Despite Wednesday's incident being one of the worst boat incidents on the river in recent history, it was just another day on the beat for the RACQ Capricorn Rescue.
"That winch was a pretty normal winch for us," Mr Salmon said.
"It was quite a confined area with trees all around but our crews train to do this kind of winching all the time so for us it was a standard operation.
"It had it's challenges like any other winch but it's something we do almost every day."
QAS senior operations supervisor Bradley Myers led a team of seven paramedics during the rescue operation.
He said the injuries sustained showed evidence of "significant high-speed trauma".
"Were really lucky no one was really badly injured," Mr Myers said.
He said it was encouraging to see how eager bystanders were to help and lend their boats to the cause. He described the operation as "very challenging" due to the remote location of the accident.
It took "about an hour" to transport the patients back to the Ski Gardens by boat due to the significant number of them and the pain they were in.
One bystander assisting with the rescue was also taken to hospital having injured their ankle.
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