Ray Merz in front of the Unimog – both have received awards. Photos: Supplied.
Watching the NSW State Emergency Service (SES) assist his daughter trapped in floodwaters inspired Inspector Ray Merz to become an SES member.
Now, nearly a decade later, the Shellharbour City Unit Commander and flood rescue operator has been awarded a Commissioner’s Commendation of Courage for his actions during rescues at the Eugowra flood event on 14 November, 2022.
About 2015, Ray’s then 15-year-old daughter was camping with friends behind Moruya on the South Coast.
“While they were camping, a rather large storm rolled in, flooded out all the waterways and essentially trapped all of the campers in the mountains,” he said.
“There was no way for them to get out for days.”
He said with no communication and not knowing how his daughter was, he spent a couple of days camped at the nearby SES unit.
“In the end, it was the SES in-water operators that managed to gain access and get communications and some food items to them,” he said.
“Once they got the kids out, I made the decision on the drive home that’s what I wanted to do.”
He said the Shellharbour unit was doing an intake and, less than two months later, he became a member with the intention to become an in-water operator.
“Twelve months almost to the day, I qualified as an in-water operator,” he said.
Ray said the role had given him more than he had ever imagined, learning about himself and changing his career path.
As an in-water operator, he was able to repay what the SES had given him and his family.
“If I’m able to alleviate the pain and the concern I went through as a parent for others, then I think it’s a good thing,” he said.
Ray progressed through the ranks, becoming Shellharbour’s deputy commander a couple of years later and unit commander 18 months ago.
However, it’s his involvement with the state’s flood rescue team that led him to being awarded the Commissioner’s Commendation of Courage.
Ray said when he arrived in Orange on deployment to the floods, all roads into Eugowra were two metres underwater.
“The zone headquarters decided to bring a Unimog in and was on standby,” he said of the High Clearance Vehicle (HCV).
“I just happened to be the only Unimog driver around at the time.”
Once he arrived at Orange Airport, he was told there was no way to get into Eugowra other than by helicopter.
“I parked the Unimog at the front of the airport, jumped on a helicopter with four other in-water operators and they flew us over what looked like a great lake – there was water as far as you could see,” he said.
“I managed to get off the helicopter and got my wetsuit, and the local incident control came over and said, ‘Are you the Unimog guy? We need you back on the bird. We think there might be a way in’.”
He said they filled the Unimog with water, blankets and first aid equipment and set off for Eugowra with two local operators.
“What is normally about a 30- or 40-minute trip took us about three hours,” he said.
“Before I noticed the water, what I noticed was a line of emergency service vehicles of every colour and description and none of them were confident with getting through the flooded road,” he said of the first obstacle.
“But this is what the Unimog was built for.
“I had the two local operators walk the road in front of me to, firstly, make sure the road was still there and secondly, to make sure it wasn’t too deep – the Unimog can only wade through about 1.2 metres of water.”
He said they went through three or four similar crossings, with the other service vehicles following.
“I was like a mother duck with all her ducklings,” he said.
Ray said that was until they reached a final stretch that was only accessible by the Unimog.
“We were right on the limit of what the Unimog could wade through, but we managed to get to the other side, get into town and unload everything at the showgrounds, which was an evacuation point,” he said.
“… we started pulling people out of houses and working with people that were in the water.
“What I didn’t find out until much later was the two metres of water that went through this town, there’s not even a river in the place.”
Ray is also part of the flood rescue training delivery team working throughout NSW to educate volunteers in all things flood rescue, including using the Unimog.
He said the NSW SES received international recognition for the research, development and introduction of the Unimog – the nation’s most advanced flood operations vehicles – after being presented with a Special Commendation Award at the Higgins and Langley Memorial Awards in the US last month.
“I’ve seen the implementation of new assets like the Unimog, to the point where, after having been deployed a couple of times as a driver, I got involved with writing the training package for them,” he said.
“Most of my work is travelling the state delivering flood rescue and High Clearance Vehicle training to other volunteers.”
Ray said being part of NSW SES was a chance to help the community in times of need and be part of the “orange family”.
“I can’t recommend it enough – to me, it’s been literally life-changing.”
John McCloghry, also from the Shellharbour City Unit, earned a Commissioner’s Commendation of Courage for his actions in evacuating bushfire-affected residents at Fishermans Paradise on New Year’s Eve in 2019.
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