Pair come to aid of marron fisher

A trip to Two Peoples Bay for local teens to learn life skills took a serious turn when the group came to the aid of an injured 64-year-old man.

Wanslea project officers Noel Coyne and Stuart Roberts were supervising a holiday program for 12 and 13-year-old students to Black Cat Creek when they heard a yell.

Steve Vanderbyl was marron fishing with his wife Marilyn, when he lost his footing on the weir wall after checking the nets last week.

“I thought I was up already but then I lost my footing and came down,” Mr Vanderbyl said. “I fell down a fair way and fell on my hip ... and then I couldn’t move.”

After hearing his cries both Mr Coyne and Mr Roberts jumped to his rescue.

“We raced over to see where he was and how he was, he said he thought he had broken his leg,“ Mr Roberts said.

“We quickly did an assessment of his injuries and his overall condition to make sure there was nothing majorly serious going on.

“The natural instincts kicked in and because you are in the moment things just seem to settle down and you focus on the situation at hand and we were thinking quite practically of what we can do to assist him, then get help.”

Mr Coyne and Mr Roberts stayed with Mr Vanderbyl until the ambulance arrived and took him to Albany Health Campus.

Mr Vanderbyl was set to have hip surgery on Friday.

“I can’t speak highly enough ... we would have been in a bit of a pickle if it weren’t for these two blokes,” Mr Vanderbyl said.