John Milford, Captain of the Wilsons Creek Rural Fire Brigade, has been in the Rural Fire Service (RFS) for about 34 years and when the 2022 floods hit he became a lynch pin in linking his local community. But for him it was ‘just doing my job’.
For many others it was key to getting help, connection, water, food and fuel. From the first morning after the flood when John received a phone call from RFS FireCom, just before all the phones went dead, asking him to go and check on a fatality further up Wilsons Creek he didn’t stop working on keeping his community as safe as he could.
With landslides across the road in both directions from his house, John started walking up the valley.
‘On the way I found a badly injured woman and amazingly NSW ambos had walked along the ridges about 4km to help her,’ he told The Echo.
‘I walked with one of the ambos to show her a suitable helicopter landing place. The next day I was just able to get my ute around one landslide so we could put the patient in the back and drive her to the landing site for evacuation by helicopter.’
Connecting community
From that point on John guided police, ADF personnel, and the Fijian army volunteers throughout Wilsons Creek, Huonbrook, and Wanganui valleys, often on foot, as roads were blocked by landslides.
‘Steve Brown was amazing. He just brought his diggers out and started opening roads. After Brown’s earthmoving team were able to open access to some areas we were able to get our Landcruiser firetruck out of the flooded fire shed and reach some more places in the valley.’
Commendation
Last week John was awarded the 2026 St Florian’s Day Award, Commissioner’s Commendation for Service, for his tireless work following the 2022 floods.
‘Captain John Milford sometimes walked 20 kilometres a day to check on residents and lead other emergency services in while providing information and critical supplies to isolated communities,’ his commendation said in part.
John also received a regimental award from the ADF’s second battalion of Australian combat engineers in recognition of his extraordinary work.
‘Major Ben Turner invited me to have dinner with them and they presented me with the regimental medal. That meant a lot to me as my dad was a career naval officer.’
The Wilsons Creek RFS trains the first Sunday of every month. If you are interested in joining the RFS visit: www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/volunteer/join-the-nsw-rfs.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
