Nambour man (Frank) Daniel Montague has been recognised for his outstanding bravery during the rescue of a young boy from a rip in Maroochydore in 2020.

Mr Montague was awarded the Commonwealth Bravery Medal, announced recently. 

The incident happened on 4 September 2020 when Mr Montague was at Cotton Tree Beach and was alerted to a young boy in distress in the water. 

The boy had been separated from his group and dragged approximately 30 metres by a strong current toward a dredge operating at the river mouth. 

Mr Montague dived into the water and swam to the boy. He grabbed him and hung onto a dredge pipe as the current was too strong to swim back to shore. 

The pipe sunk under the weight of him and the boy, and the two floated over it toward the dredge. Mr Montague swam back against the current and again held onto the pipe, which had resurfaced. 

Two onlookers paddled out and put the boy onto a small kayak, but were unable to swim back against the strong current. A third onlooker arrived on a paddle board and placed Mr Montague onto the board. Mr Montague was in the water for approximately 25 minutes. 

A motor skiff arrived and took the boy, and then Mr Montague, to the shore. Arriving at the shore, Mr Montague suffered a stress induced heart attack and other injuries as a result of the rescue.