Sunshine Coast rural fireys, SES volunteers and their backstories | List
From searching for missing persons, evacuating 3000 homes to saving lives, these are the backstories of some of the Sunshine Coast’s volunteer emergency heroes.
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The Sunshine Coast is no stranger to catastrophe with natural disasters and bushfires tearing through the region in recent years.
During these times of distress and need, volunteer emergency heroes are a welcome sight for anyone trapped on their roof due to flooding, or when you’re trying to locate a missing loved one.
You’ll hope you never need them, but you’re glad they’re there.
These are the stories of some of the emergency service heroes from the Sunshine Coast and Noosa revealed.
Mitchell Eldridge – Sunshine Coast SES
Seeing the fury of mother nature rip through Sunshine Coast homes is something that will stick with Sunshine Coast deputy local controller Mitchell Eldridge for years to come.
Based out of Caloundra, Mr Eldridge has been working among the Sunshine Coast SES crews for more than nine years.
During his tenure he has witnessed super cell storms leave a trail of destruction, particularly in 2014 where he saw the Big Top Shopping Centre “smashed and thrashed with hail”.
“There was such a huge weather event and I think it went for at least a good week where we had constant jobs in the wet all the time,” Mr Eldridge said.
“The rain kept piling in and we saw flood damaged homes, landslides causing water to go different places, then partner that with hail ripping through roofs.”
Over his nine years he has risen through the ranks to his current position and was looking to upskill in disaster management to help Sunshine Coast residents when the worst happens.
Langford Rae – Beerwah Rural Fire Bridge
Beerwah Rural Fire Brigade’s Langford Rae has more than 20 years of fire service under his belt, but the fires in Noosa were a memorable job for all of the wrong reasons.
Mr Rae came to the Sunshine Coast more than 14 years ago having organised a transfer from his role as a rural firey at the Gold Coast.
There’s been several fires over the years where the Beerwah firefighter has put himself between residents and danger but the Noosa bushfires were a different beast entirely.
“We had a whole string of fires in 2019 up there and for me personally, Noosa stands out,” he said.
“It was a fire over a period of days and due to the size of it we had to evacuate 3000 homes.
“We also had to work to contain it threatening other homes and needed a lot of air support.”
Anita Gaskin – QFES Communications
When it comes to natural disasters, fires and horrific traffic crashes, fire communications officer Anita Gaskin in the conduit between victims and emergency crews.
Ms Gaskin has been working with the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services for more than 16 years, with about half of it as a supervisor.
In her role in the command centre she will run the room to make sure the right resources go to the right job.
Her expertise was pivotal during the 2022 February floods when the Sunshine Coast was saturated by rain for several weeks.
“On February 23 we had extensive rain about 3am affecting the Sunshine Coast and the calls started coming in of people being stuck in flood waters with roads being closed,” Ms Gaskin said.
“We had that rain band sit on the Coast and it never went way and we were inundated with calls.”
Ms Gaskin recalled having to work directly with a woman driving a 4WD who found herself caught in flood waters.
“Those are the hardest jobs when we’re talking to those out there and trying to get swift water crews out to them.”
The fire communications expert said it was one of the more stressful weather events she had, which included the death of Belli Park woman Philippa Tayler and the train derailment in Traveston, but said she couldn’t do it without her team.
Tye Cotter – Noosa SES
Originally working with the Noosa SES unit as a volunteer for the last eight years, Tye Cotter has moved into a new role as a senior remote pilot for QFES.
What this involves is manning a drone while assisting SES crews and firefighters in natural disasters and rescues.
Mr Cotter said it’s a new role they’ve created in emergency services with only five other remote pilots in the North Coast region.
“It’s been operational since August last year, we’ve conducted numerous operations from land searches, to searching for people missing people,” Mr Cotter said.
“In January we also helped in the flood event, where we used drones to check the welfare of people cut off during the floods, as well as assisting swiftwater crews. ”
Mr Cotter also helps with his drone helping on remote rescues on Mt Tibrogargan and Mt Beerwah, using spotlights to help emergency crews.
Andrew Collins – Caloundra SES
Caloundra SES volunteer Andrew Collins has been a veteran of the rescue crews for more than seven years, where he has racked up several powerful experiences.
Originally joining the volunteer rescue service to help people and accumulate skills through their diverse training, he has since found himself in some hairy situations.
“I’ve been involved in mountain rescues on Mt Beerwah and Mt Tibrogargan … I’m also a flood boat operator and was deployed to Port Macquarie last year to help with their big floods,” he said.
During these operations Mr Collins would be deployed for several days, helping those trapped and affected by the wild flood levels that have plagued the east coast of Australia for several summers.
Rob Cullen – Landsborough Rural Fire Brigade
For Landsborough rural firey Rob Cullen, his career fighting disaster began from humble beginnings in the local scout troop.
Mr Cullen said the fire brigade in Landsborough had used their campsite as a training ground, and from there he befriended the local crew and joined shortly afterwards.
Several years on working as a senior firefighter, Mr Cullen has battled blazes to help Sunshine Coast hinterland communities.
One of the more interesting battles with fires was when his crew were tasked to Maleny for a particularly nasty bushfire.
“We were called out to go to Maleny and on our way along Landsborough Maleny Rd and we were flagged down by a guy calling triple-0 and we deemed that a higher priority,” Mr Cullen said.
“We were racing against the clock on that one.”
Mr Cullen said an innocuous garbage fire had snowballed into a large grass fire which had been racing up to a homeowner's property.
The solo crew were able to extinguish the fire but believed if they weren’t around it might’ve been a different story for the homeowner.
“You don’t have a crystal ball when you’re out there but if we hadn’t have been there things would’ve been a lot different, and he was appreciative for it,” Mr Cullen said.
The Landsborough firey even recalled the supercell storms back in March 2022 which annihilated homes between Beerwah and Landsborough.
It consisted of three days of clean ups, where Mr Cullen tarped his own roof at 3.30am one morning and would be off to help others, only to come back and find his home had been damaged even more.
“It’s part of the job, I told my wife to just take care of what she could, I’m going to look after other people,” he said.
Amylee Asquith – Noosa SES
Joining the Noosa SES unit at the age of 18 at the request of her mum, Amylee Asquith has been amazed at the impact she’s had on her community.
Ms Asquith said her love for helping people was one of the several reasons she had stuck with the emergency service response group.
She even spent her 19th birthday this year in floodwaters on the Sunshine Coast following the freak weather event that hit the region.
One particular job that sticks out for the Noosa teenager is when her unit came to the aid of an elderly woman impacted by floodwaters.
“It was during the floods in March and we were helping an elderly woman where her house had flooded,” Ms Asquith said.
“The water went knee deep through her entire house and we were helping her move stuff out of her shed which included family memories.
“We tried to help as much as we could but we were about to get ready for round two of the storms so we were trying to prepare her to leave.”
Ms Asquith said the elderly woman was grateful for the assistance, with members from the Noosa SES unit coming back in the weeks after the storm helping her move items in her home due to the extensive damage.
Michael Rodway – Noosa SES deputy local controller
Going from a bushwalker to a tradie and now the Noosa SES, Michael Rodway brings a lot to the table for the emergency response on the Coast.
After moving from Tasmania and rising through the ranks, Mr Rodway recently became the deputy local controller for the Noosa SES unit.
Through those three years he has been side-by-side with his fellow volunteers along with police and other emergency responders to some hairy scenes.
Land searches for missing persons have had mixed results for Mr Rodway – from their services not being required to others ending in tragedy.
“One was quite a sad result and was unexpected,” Mr Rodway said.
“You just have take it with a grain of salt and do what’s required … once you get into the role your brain switches into the technical side to get the job done.”
Now in his leadership role, Mr Rodway works in supporting crews on the ground in emergency situations.
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