The Australian’s Australian of the Year: Neighbours who floated ‘Tinny Army’ earn their plaudits

Lismore local Aidan Ricketts did not give his home a second thought when floodwaters were rapidly rising and inundating his town, all he wanted to do was jump in his tinny and save his neighbours.

Aidan Ricketts from Lismore’s ‘Tinny Army’. Picture: Raimond de Weerdt

Lismore local Aidan Ricketts did not give his home a second thought when floodwaters were rapidly rising and inundating his northern NSW town in late February last year, all he wanted to do was jump in his tinny and save his neighbours.

The Wilsons River had erupted and Mr Ricketts, a Southern Cross University law lecturer turned everyday hero, started his tinny’s motor and set off on a mission to shuttle to safety as many of his neighbours as he could muster.

But he told The Australian he was not the only local selflessly taking to the water that day to rescue the residents of Lismore.

He was merely a member of a group dubbed the “Tinny Army” and their remarkable efforts have earned not only Mr Ricketts but his fellow rescuers a nomination for The Australian’s Australian of the Year.

Mr Ricketts said he was anxiously awaiting daybreak on February 28, knowing the floodwaters were rising but also knowing it was dangerous to manoeuvre his tinny in the dark.

But at first light, he was off.

“In my street alone, basically all the neighbours were on their roofs,” he said.

“So, I took off and took my immediate neighbours to what I call the mainland, which is a spot across the river, which gives people access to the hospital and the evacuation centres.”

He returned and set about trying to evacuate an elderly neighbour in her 90s from her home.

“It was quite an operation because she was very frail.

“We had to lift her through a window and into a boat, and we were afraid of damaging her, but we didn’t and we got her to shore,” he said.

“But then we noticed that people two doors down from us were trying to hammer their way out of their ceiling and on to their roof.”

But after helping those people out, Mr Ricketts began to fear the worst.

“I remember the most frightening moment was looking out across the town at the rising water on roofs and thinking: ‘Oh my God. People are drowning in roofs’,” he said.

“It was frightening.”

“Thankfully, that didn’t happen on as large a scale as it really looked at the time and I think that’s the miracle of the Tinny Army.”

But despite the name, Mr Ricketts said it was more than tinnies.

“There was everybody who could.

“There were tinnies, kayaks, jet skis.

“The kayaks would rescue some people, but they tended to go in and locate people, and then tell people in tinnies to go and get them.

“There were all sorts of things happening.”

Mr Ricketts estimates he ferried 22 people and eight dogs to safety that day, but he knows hundreds of people, if not more, were saved by the Tinny Army.

That day also marked the first time his heavily elevated Lismore home had ever been flooded, with water rising to neck height.

“But even though my place was going under, the moment I was out rescuing people, I didn’t give my property a second thought,” he said.

“If you’ve got a boat and there’s people on roofs, you know, you’re not going to be thinking about your book collection or your files.

“Two friends were still at my place and they actually took it upon themselves to try and get whatever they could of my possessions into the ceiling.”

According to Mr Ricketts, it was only fair he was nominated for The Australian’s Australian of the Year alongside the others.

“Because there’s not really any big difference between any one person in a tinny and any other person in a tinny; we were all doing the same thing.”

We encourage our readers to put in a nomination for The Australian’s Australian of the Year, which was first won in 1971 by economist HC “Nugget” Coombs. Prominent Australians can be nominated by filling out the form above, or sending an email to [e-mail]. Nominations close on Friday, January 20.