Two Hunter heroes will today be recognised for their outstanding acts of bravery.
In strong winds and rough seas, Jim Stringfellow and his marine rescue crew spent almost three hours saving a vessel and its passengers off Bird Island in February 2013.
"Visibility was just about zero by the time we got to the vessel and when we started to tow it back in the tow rope was straining it could have broken at any point in time," says Jim.
"The other thing we have to be careful of when you're towing a vessel like that is if that if the vessel sinks and you don't release the vessel it'll pull you down as well."
Now, five years on and Jim and his team are being commended for their brave conduct.
"It's a bit of a surprise but yeah we were just doing our jobs basically," he said.
For Luke Robinson, his willingness to help in the 2016 rescue of a woman and young girl has landed him a bravery award.
"A guy came running past me on the headland and I was having a picnic with the girlfriend and said that there was a little girl in the water drowning and I was pretty familiar with the beach so that's why I jumped in," he said.
"We tried to get away from the rocks but the waves pushed us back towards the rocks and I tried to scale the rocks and a guy let me his hand and I grabbed his hand and the waves hit us and dragged us all in and just got pounded with waves and the rescue boat came and picked me and the little girl back to the beach.
"I feel pretty proud of it yeah."
