RURAL Fire Services Boonah Group Officer Trevor Turner has been announced as the winner of the 2021 QBank Everyday Heroes Achievement Award.

            In a ceremony held in Townsville on Thursday, Mr Turner, was called to the stage with three other finalists to await the announcement of who would take home the Award and the $2,000 prize money, of which $1,000 would go into the winner’s bank account and the remainder gifted to a charity of their choosing.

            While Mr Turner said he hadn’t expected to hear his name called out as the winner, he had thought about what he would do with the prize money on the off chance it came his way.

            “The charity of my choice was always going to be the Cancer Council of Queensland.

            “I had a melanoma that my hairdresser noticed and I ended up with a hole in my head the size of a golf ball.

            “They found out I had a rogue gene that caused it. I am more than grateful to the Cancer Council.”

            And his plans for the remaining $1,000.

            “That will all be going to the Wood family at Mt Alford.

            “Years ago, Merv Wood put down a bore beside the Teviot Brook at Mt Alford for the Council but never received any money for his work.

            “Mt Alford Rural Fire Brigade has since spent money upgrading and equipping the bore and it has made us self-sufficient for water for our brigade or for any rural brigade fighting fires in the southern end of the Shire.

            “It will be my way of saying thanks.”

Trevor’s selection for the Achievement Award was made principally for his two-month volunteer involvement in fighting the Black Summer Bushfires.

            That involvement was a daily commitment between October 7 and December 7, 2019.

            “It was the longest and hardest campaign I have ever been involved in.” he recalled.

            “It came over the Main Range on October 7 and just didn’t let up. It was during the worst drought in living history and there were days of extreme heat and high winds.”

            He recalled the fire on Mt Mathieson “roaring like 10 trains coming straight at you”.

            Mr Turner has been a volunteer fire fighter for more than 30 years.

            “I know the country and I know how fire behaves in our country but that campaign was definitely a new experience for me.”

            The long campaign took its toll on his cattle property.

            “We had no surface water on the farm and we were trying to keep 150 head of cattle alive,” he said.

            Each morning before daylight, he’d set up the electric fence for strip grazing and leave for the fire ground around 4.30am. Later his wife Kaylene would pump water from the bore after herding the cattle back into their paddock.

            And he was quick to say that many other volunteers made a huge commitment during those months of fighting bushfires.

            “One of those was my offsider, Louise Armytage who had only recently joined the brigade.”