Australia Day honours 2016: Rachelle Burnett, military division

Rachelle Burnett’s career has so far included destroying tonnes of drugs mid-ocean, rescuing asylum-seekers and hunting for MH370.

Warrant Officer ­Rachelle Burnett.

She has been in the navy only 18 years, but Warrant Officer ­Rachelle Burnett’s action-packed career has so far included destroying tonnes of illicit drugs mid-ocean, treating blown-up asylum-seekers near Ashmore Island and hunting for Malaysia Airlines MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean.

That’s on top of deployments to East Timor during the height of the independence conflict and serving in the Middle East during 9/11.

For all this service, Burnett has been awarded the OAM in the military division of the Order of Australia. “Warrant Officer Burnett demonstrated inspirational leadership, courage, determination and innovation during two deployments to the Middle East region, border protection operations and the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370,” the cita­tion says. “Her treatment of casualties on board HMAS Childers following an explosion on Suspected Irregular Entry Vessel 36, whole ship co-ordination and leadership of HMAS Toowoomba’s Narcotics Disposal Team were instrumental to the operational success.”

Burnett says it’s all part of the job she loves. “This is what the navy does.”

While former prime minister Tony Abbott’s policy of turning back asylum-seeker boats was predicated on “when it’s safe to do so”, Burnett’s ­experience shows that it’s not always safe.

She directed operations from the boat deck near Ashmore ­Island on April 16, 2009, when the SIEV 36 became a fireball.

“We were in the middle of boarding operations and the SIEV exploded,” Burnett said.

“I was standing on the bridge of the Childers and you could feel the explosion just move through your body, it was so powerful.”

Nine of the crew of the patrol boat had been in the boarding party at the time of the explosion.

“They all had burns and a couple had shrapnel pieces in the legs and one guy had a broken ankle,” Burnett said.

She took charge of the recovery operation. There were 31 casualties, 27 described as critical.

“We were just pulling as many people out of the water as quickly as we could just to save lives.”

Burnett had been trained as a paramedic, but fortunately a military doctor happened to be on board.

“With Dr Jo Darby we started to establish a bit of a triage,” Burnett said.

“To have that many casualties on board a small patrol boat not built for that is pretty extreme.”

Burnett has also had military police duties — including destroying tonnes of drugs, but she won’t say how.

Burnett, who is originally from the NSW central coast, is currently working in Canberra preparing personnel for the introduction of new frigates.