“Most” of nearly 300 boaties Bravery awards in jeopardy – calls for official recognition of Lismore’s Tinny Army

2023 NSW Regional Woman of the Year finalist, Dannielle Pickford, is calling on State and Federal Governments to officially recognise the boaties in the Tinny Army after she was told “most” of the nearly 300 individual nominations she made were ineligible for Australian Bravery Decorations. “One year ago I started a list with a few phone numbers of strangers in boats in the hope of getting help to people who needed it,” shared Pickford. “I now have a list of almost 300 names of “the boaties”, people who contributed to Australia’s largest civilian rescue effort. The list sat on my computer, but knowing it deserved to be more than that I nominated every name I had for the Bravery Medal,” said Pickford. “Unfortunately, I was informed that names were not enough and in order for a nomination to be successful I needed to have very detailed information about where and when the act of bravery occurred and the