Cooktown’s Dylan Harrigan has been named an Everyday Hero for his work as an ambulance technician helping south-eastern Cape York communities. Photo: Chisa Hasegawa.
A respected Cooktown ambulance technician going above and beyond to support his community is now officially a hero after he won a QBank Everyday Heroes Award on 11 October.
Dylan Harrigan was recognised in the Excellence category at the annual awards lunch in Brisbane on Friday for his efforts during the Tropical Cyclone Jasper flood event in December 2023.
“I didn’t think I’d ever be here receiving some kind of award like this,” he told Cape York Weekly after the presentation.
“I’m holding this on behalf of everyone that came together during those tragic days; for me, I see this as something I’m accepting on behalf of everyone else as well – we worked so hard during those times.
“Those ones in Wujal Wujal during that night, those heroes, this is for them as well.”
Mr Harrigan was on the frontline in Cooktown preparing for the arrival of Wujal Wujal residents who had been evacuated.
“They’re coming in and you can see they’d lost everything,” he reflected.
“One of them was my brother – he lost everything – and it caught them all by surprise, you know; yes, we heard rain was coming, but not to that scale.
“You could see the exhaustion and the fatigue and the hunger, and they just needed a place to rest until the realisation kicked in that there’s no community to go back to right now.
“When you have a lot of the elderly speak about that they’ve never seen this in their lifetime, well that’s telling you something.”
Mr Harrigan was also celebrated for his work as a cultural advisor between the Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) and the First Nations community on Cape York.
He said it was an honour to use this role during a time that was traumatic for many.
“I think that bridging between me and my colleagues, getting them to understand because of cultural barriers, this is what’s got to happen, we’re gonna place certain people in certain areas to camp and make sure Elders are looked after,” he said.
“It was important for them to understand that it’s not just going in and treating patients because they’re injured, it’s actually getting them to understand this is a unique type of rescue with cultural nuances.
“I think at the end of the day, those people who I work with, they’re all good people, and we were debriefing about the best way to go about things – they came to me, and had that respect of asking what’s the best option to go about these situations.”
Mr Harrigan’s pride for the uniform is evident to anyone who has seen him doing his job and puts everything he has into serving his community each day.
“When I took the role with QAS, I didn’t think how big it can become for you; I really thought we just go out and treat patients, but it’s beyond that,” he said.
“You’re in a small community, you go beyond that, you look out and help as much as you can, you follow up with patients, you make sure they’re alright; you know these people and you grew up with these people.
“When I wake up every day and I put that uniform on, it is 110 per cent in everything that I do.”
Dylan Harrigan (left) says he was surprised to have won the QBank Everyday Hero Award for just doing the job he does each time he pulls his uniform on. Photo: Supplied.
