Te Reo ‘Tee’ Haronga scrambled down a cliff to rescue a paraglider. He is one of 26 people to be recognised for courageous acts

A regular fishing trip for Te Reo “Tee” Haronga became a high-danger rescue mission after a paraglider crashed into the ocean right in front of him.

Haronga jumped into action instantly, using his local knowledge to travel down the precarious rocks of Warriewood headland in New South Wales and bring the 91-year-old paraglider safely to shore.

“I think when you go through these things, you were just meant to be there,” the New Zealand expat said. “It has changed me in a lot of different ways; more respect for life and what it means to save someone.”

Haronga is one of 26 people who have been awarded Australian bravery decorations by the governor general for their courageous acts.

The governor general said these individuals showed selflessness and compassion and “reflect characteristics to which we all aspire”.

The paraglider rescue mission would have only taken Haronga a few minutes but he said it felt “more like two hours”, and struggled to put into words just how clear his mind became in the moment.

“I’m a confident swimmer, but when you’re swimming with one arm and you’ve got a parachute full of water … I think it took me about a minute or two minutes, but it was touch and go and I was burning out pretty quick,” he said.

Haronga has lived in Narrabeen for about 18 years but is originally from Feilding in Manawatū, New Zealand. It was there at the Makino aquatic centre he learned to swim, and he now spends a lot of his time around the ocean either diving or fishing.

Since the rescue in 2020 Haronga has shared a number of meals with the paraglider and was recognised by his community with donations of fishing gear for his brave act.

To be recognised by the governor general with a bravery medal was “absolutely humbling”, he said.

The list of recipients included people who had de-escalated bomb threats, assisted others who had been stabbed or assaulted, and rescued residents from flood waters.

SES volunteers Matthew Elliott, Daniel Groom and Adrian Phu worked together in treacherous conditions late one night in February 2020 to rescue a man from flood waters in Milperra, NSW.

The group worked for more than an hour in the dark to locate and retrieve the man. They swam through deep flood waters full of barbed wire fencing, traversed floating cars and shed roofs, relying on the faint sound of the man’s voice for direction.

“It’s a bit of the unknown in the dark, which makes it a bit more frightening because you don’t know what’s in that water,” Elliott said. “It’s good to be recognised, especially being volunteers in what we do and all the effort and hard work we put into training and stuff like that.”

Elliott first joined the SES nine years ago. He hadn’t heard of the organisation until a close friend of his died in a road crash, and was attended to by volunteers from the Hawkesbury branch.

“A lot of friends say ‘why do you do it, you don’t get paid,’” he said. “When we go out and rescue them, the look in their faces of ‘thank God you’re here,’ it just hits home.”

Young people were recognised by the governor general, with Western Australia’s Jesse Carter commended for brave conduct after his mother had a seizure at the wheel last year. He managed to steer the car safely through red lights and into a brick wall to avoid pedestrians, breaking his legs and right arm in the process.

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Timothy Brown became the third person ever to receive the bar to the bravery medal for rescuing a trapped driver from a burning vehicle. After a number of attempts he was able to remove the passenger from the car and pull them to safety, before he himself collapsed from smoke inhalation.

A posthumous bravery medal was also awarded to Ellen Cartwright, who died in a 1960 house fire along with her two daughters and father-in-law. Cartwright got her husband safely out of the house before attempting to retrieve more family members, but the fire – started by a paraffin fridge explosion – engulfed the entire home.

Two Australian bravery lists are announced each year after an independent council makes recommendations to the governor general.