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Roger Campbell - Australian Bravery Award

Mr MATT KEAN ( Hornsby ) ( 17:01 ): Hornsby is filled with everyday heroes. We are honoured to have Berowra Heights local Roger Campbell who was awarded the Australian Bravery Award on Valentine's Day in 2007. Mr Campbell was one of seven skiers who explored Mount Maedake in the Hakkoda Mountains of Northern Japan, which is well known for being extremely treacherous, remote and unfamiliar. On the first day, conditions rapidly deteriorated with winds of 120 kilometres an hour and temperatures of minus 20 degrees. An avalanche savagely buried half of another group. Mr Campbell described the scene and said that he had to extricate partially buried bodies and smashed helmets, attend to people with broken noses, and make the injured comfortable. Mr Campbell is trained in building ice shelters and in cardiopulmonary resuscitation [CPR] and has more than 20 years experience on the Perisher slopes as a ski patroller.

Mr Campbell and his group helped 24 victims, all whilst under threat of another avalanche. As one person could not be accounted for Mr Campbell and his group spent another 90 minutes searching for that person, who thankfully was found alive. Unfortunately, Akihiro Kondo and Tomoyuki Kosuga, two of the individuals buried in the avalanche, passed away. In 2007 the Japanese Government honoured the group comprising Mr Campbell, David Gerard Brown, the late Jonathan Keith Disher, Glenn Philip McSwiney, Mark Hounsell Spilsbury and David Ross Stewart-Thompson by awarding them with the Medal of the Red Ribbon. This medal honours individuals who risk their own lives to save others. I thank Mr Campbell and his group for all that they did to save the lives of those stranded on Mount Maedake that day, and I commend him for his tremendous bravery and courage.

To read the full hansard transcrit, click here.