Chapter 15

Death Trap

Aaron Ledden

It’s A strange concept, luck: the idea that chance alone, some random indiscriminate event can hold the key to certain critical outcomes in life. As humans in the 21st century, nearly every aspect of our life is planned out. It is orderly and controlled with a view to handling every eventuality.

So to have something as important as whether you live or die depend on luck and for it to be so totally outside your control is a daunting thought. But, if you think about it, we walk a virtual tightrope every day. The line between life and death is often not as well defined as we think. But what some think of as good luck, coincidence or simple fluke, others think of as fate or some pre-determined cosmic path. This is the idea of destiny in which every event and every moment in an individual’s life is mapped out and what appears to be random events are in fact nothing more than the inevitable playing out of some grand plan.

If you follow the mystical interpretations, the lives of Ken Little and Aaron Ledden, otherwise having no common orbit, were nevertheless on fixed trajectories that slowly, inevitably moved closer, destined to intersect. If you don’t, then Ken Little was just incredibly lucky that, on the same day he decided to go fishing, Aaron Ledden decided to wag school and spend the afternoon surfing. Whatever your interpretation their lives crossed paths on a sunny winter’s afternoon and it would turn out with profound results for both.

Friday 2 July in 1993 was a beautiful winter’s day in the northern New South Wales coastal town of Port Macquarie. ‘Bright sunshine, light offshore breeze. Just perfect,’ Aaron said.

‘It was about 1 o’clock. My best mate Greg Porter and I were down surfing the middles, which is out in the middle of the bay of Port Macquarie near the mouth to the Hastings River which flows into the bay. It only ever breaks out there when there are large swells and there were this day.’

Being out surfing while his school mates were stuck behind their desks was hardly a misdemeanor. His mum knew where he was. She used to agree to what they called ‘Aaron days’, an occasional day’s reprieve from the hard slog of study in Year 11. Aaron, 16 at the time, attended McKillop High, the local catholic high school. Besides, when the Middles, a favourite surf spot for the locals, is pumping, the dedicated board rider can do nothing to resist.

Surfing had been a passion for Aaron since he moved with his family to Port Macquarie from their cattle property in north-western New South Wales. The eldest of three children, he had been about four at the time. His father, a stock and station agent, had been given a butcher’s shop in Port Macquarie by one of his mates another of those events, fateful or lucky depending on your ideology, which causes one of those life-changing directions.

‘Dad thought why not. It was an opportunity. So he taught himself how to be a butcher and worked on his tan,’ Aaron said. And Aaron fell in love with the water, spending as many of his leisure hours as he could catching the avalanching sets, the colour of emeralds as they rolled in from the Tasman Sea.

‘There was us and another two surfers sitting out the back, waiting for the sets to come through. And just as one did we saw a boat coming through in the middle of them.’ The boat was attempting to enter the mouth of the river on its way back from a fishing trip. Normally boats approach from the other direction or they wait until there is a lull between the sets, and come in on the back of a wave. But the boat was coming through in the middle of these waves. It was a half-cabin, fibreglass boat about 18 metres long, not really suitable for going out to sea.

‘We all looked at each other and thought what’s going on here?’

Inevitably and with little warning the boat was lifted up on a rising swell and propelled forward. As the wave peaked the boat cascaded down the face of it like a surfer itself. The boat then hit the bottom of the wave, the bow spearing into the white froth and jackknifing before turning turtle as a wave smashed straight over the top of the vessel, spilling its cargo into the boiling sea.

‘It just completely smashed it up. Three or four of us paddled over and three people had surfaced two older blokes and a young boy. One of the other surfers Peter Smith took the young kid and put him on his board. They were about a kilometre from the river mouth and about 500 metres from the closest land.

‘The other two men then yelled out, saying there was a fourth man trapped inside the boat.’ The boat at this point was upside down and half-submerged. None of the men were wearing lifejackets. ‘Basically as it turned out there was no safety equipment whatsoever.’

Aaron learned later that this outing was to be the last for the boat. The owner had stripped out all the fittings including the safety equipment and lifejackets. For local people who should have known the conditions, this was a bad mistake. To try and ride the surf in a boat at any time was bad enough, but to do it knowing there was no safety equipment makes it even harder

to fathom.

Aaron decided to put one of the men on his board, tying the leg rope around him so that if he did get washed off the board in the churning surf, he could still retrieve it. He then yelled to Greg to take the other man on his board and take both his and Aaron’s passengers to safety.

Greg did so and started kicking slowly, holding onto the two boards and guiding the rescued fisherman away from the breaking waves. Aaron then made the biggest decision of his relatively young life. Fearing for the safety of the missing fisherman he decided to dive down into the boat and try to find him. ‘I just said to Greg I’m going under.’

The missing fourth man, Ken Little, as it turned out had become trapped underneath the boat in the cabin area.

Greg yelled at him not to do it, fearing he would get caught up in the boat’s flotsam and drown. But Aaron took a deep breath and duck-dived down, making his way through the tangle of rope and fishing gear underneath the hull.

As Aaron flailed around in the boat under the surface looking for Ken, a wave smashed into the boat, knocking him around. In the chaos he got caught up in the tangle of rope and fishing gear. But he was in an air pocket and was able to grab a breath before freeing himself, diving down and out and back up to the surface. He could see no sign of Ken.

He paused, took another breath and went under again. This time he saw a leg up towards the cabin area. He made a grab for it and tried to pull. Aaron at this point did not know if Ken had drowned or was unconscious or injured in some way. By this time the boat had drifted into the channel leading to the river and was now rotating into a vertical position with its nose up and stern being pulled down by the weight of the outboard motor. And it kept sinking lower.

With a grip on Ken’s leg Aaron tried to pull him free with no effect. He again pushed away and resurfaced. This time he swam around to the front of the boat and to the cabin window. He smashed the window with his hands and in doing so allowed the water to rush in and fill the air pocket. Time had run out for Ken, who was still alive and conscious.

He was by now lodged in the bulkhead of the boat where the last remaining air was. As the boat had slowly tipped up, instead of diving out from underneath Ken had moved up into the bulkhead. But now with the cabin window smashed and just the bow sitting above the surface, the water was flooding and about to expel that last bit of air.

If Aaron was to save the fisherman he had to find him immediately before he was drowned by the gushing water. Everything from inside the cabin that could float seat cushions, fishing tackle and other gear – had crammed into the bulkhead blocking out any remaining traces of air. They spilled out of the opening made by the broken window, plugging the only entrance now left.

Aaron took a breath and lunged at the debris, forcing himself through the hole into the rapidly sinking boat. He felt around frantically trying to locate Ken and eventually bumped up against him.

He managed to get a grip on him and pulled him back out through the window. The man was stunned and knocked about on the head from the battering taken by the boat and he had swallowed a lot of water, but he was alive and breathing. A minute later and it would have been a totally different story, not just for Ken but possibly for Aaron too.

Aaron got Ken floating on his back, and supporting his head began to kick slowly back towards shore. As he did the boat’s bow finally slipped below the shimmering surface. They were alive.

About five minutes later a rescue boat arrived on the scene and picked up Greg, Aaron, Peter and the four rescued fishermen and within minutes they were safely back on shore. Aaron and Greg then casually picked up their gear and went home. Apart from some cuts from the broken Perspex window Aaron suffered no injuries.

Aaron’s mum took quite a bit of convincing that her son who she assumed had been out catching a few waves had just saved someone’s life. After the initial excitement and euphoria of such an event, the reality for Aaron set in. ‘I suffered shock quite severely. It was really strange. I began going over what had happened and what if I hadn’t done this or that and what if I hadn’t saved him.’

‘It wasn’t that I realised I had put myself in danger, it was more “what if I hadn’t been able to save him? What if that person died”?’ Aaron said.

The enormity of what could have happened was quite unsettling.

 

A picture of Aaron with Greg and Peter in the local paper the next day is that of a mere slip of a kid a lean, lanky 16-year-old who still has a lot of filling out to do. And at 16 he is not much more than a kid, which makes the physical act of his rescue, as well as his courage, all the more remarkable.

But in spite of that Aaron ranks his effort below that of other rescuers. He honestly believes he was not as much at risk as it might seem. He felt in no real danger at any time, despite the fact the boat was sinking and he was inside it with the risk of being trapped in it like a cray in a craypot.

Aaron had basic surf lifesaving training and having surfed since a kid was confident in the water and the surf. And his parents and grandparents had taught him about compassion and respect for others and as a vice-captain of his school he had leadership qualities and a bit of initiative. But by the same token he says he is not a risk-taker, unlike many 16-year-olds who often think they are invincible and have little regard for their safety.

Aaron believes it wasn’t a huge thing he had done, compared to some of the amazing rescues other people have achieved. He was surprised not only to receive the NSW Royal Humane Society’s bronze medal but the Stanhope gold medal as well, the highest honour in the Commonwealth.

Aaron said he made his decision to try and save Ken in a split second. It was almost instinctive. ‘Although the whole thing felt like it happened over ten minutes it was actually over in a couple of minutes. There wasn’t time to sit and think and weigh the pros and cons.’

And it is the people who make a conscious decision to help that are the more worthy, Aaron believes. ‘I accepted the award and I enjoyed the recognition to an extent but I was actually kind of embarrassed. It was a big fuss over something that I didn’t think was as brave as so many others have been. The word hero doesn’t sit too comfortably with many people. I can honestly say very few people know about my award. I don’t tell many people.’

One of the trappings of a bravery award is being entitled to use the letters denoting the award after your name, something these heroes rarely do. ‘I’ve never used it. Not even in resumes. I don’t want to get a job on the basis of something I did in five minutes ten years ago.’

Ironically though, it was indirectly because of the award that Aaron was able to get what he thinks is the best job in the world. Today Aaron is a national park ranger working on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, having turned his love of the natural environment into his career. ‘It’s the only thing I ever wanted to do.’

After studying environmental resource management at university, Aaron was due to receive his award the day of a final exam. When he tried to shift the time to sit the exam so he could go to Sydney to accept his award, the university refused. He chose to accept the award and his lecturer immediately failed him in that subject.

Because of that he had to complete a ten-week work placement to make up the failed subject. Luckily it was with NSW Parks in Port Macquarie and as a result of that placement Aaron was given his entrée into the National Parks where he works today.

Aaron said he has no ongoing relationship with the man he rescued. He met Ken later and he was incredibly grateful, but there was no eternal bond between the two. However, there was a funny twist to Ken and Aaron’s meeting. Ken wanted to thank Aaron for saving him. And his way of saying thank you was to offer to take Aaron fishing out to sea through the Middles. Aaron chuckles at the irony. He saves the skipper of a sinking boat after a fishing trip goes horribly wrong, who then offers to take him fishing in a boat as a reward. ‘I didn’t really want to go but I went because my mum said I should,’ Aaron says with a grin.