Distance is no barrier for Marine Rescue Middle Harbour volunteer Lance Miller
Despite living in Sydney’s western suburbs, Lance Miller has dedicated 50 years of his life as a member of Marine Rescue Middle Harbour. He was 21 when he first joined what was then known as the Volunteer Coastal Patrol. He had no knowledge about boating, but figured this was the place to learn.
“Times have certainly changed,” he recalls. “When I started, you weren’t allowed on a boat at all. And when you eventually did get on a boat, you’d just stand in the corner and watch. You couldn’t get in the men’s way!
“But the good thing was that a lot of the old blokes were ex-Navy or from some sort of maritime service, and their knowledge — what they were able to pass across — was brilliant and great for training.”
Fifty years on, Commissioner Alex Barrell has presented Lance with the Marine Rescue NSW Commissioner’s Commendation for Service in recognition of his contribution to vessel operations and training at Marine Rescue Middle Harbour. Lance is a Marine Rescue Master, boasting five decades of driving boats, training crews, and assisting the public.
Living a distance from Mosman was never a barrier to Lance, but the locals initially doubted his resolve. “When I started at the Coastal Patrol, I was living in Cabramatta. Then we moved even further away to Penrith, where we are now. They were talking about not letting me in because I lived too far away and I wouldn’t last. They didn’t think they’d see me after the first or second day. But for the next 50 years, I’ve kept coming back.”
When Lance first started, volunteers needed to supply their own uniforms – and boats – and he learned navigation and seamanship. These days Middle Harbour has the state’s newest purpose-built base with state-of-the-art facilities.
“(The) facilities we have now, the technology like GPS, the level of RADAR, the radio network up and down the coast are amazing. It doesn’t matter where you are, you can get help. Whereas before, in the early days, we were local; we were Sydney, Botany, and Broken Bay. And then there were little spots up and down the coast that were covered, but they were different to us. Slowly, we all amalgamated into one big organisation. It’s a lot better that way,” Lance says.
Lance receiving his 30 years long service pin
He has many great memories. “I remember one assist we went to, where the vessel was taking on water fast, a mile north of Blue Fish,” Lance recalls. “It was going down, and the first thing this fella onboard passes us over wasn’t his kid, it wasn’t his teenager, it wasn’t his wife, it was a slab of beer. Priorities! We laughed about that for years.”
And then there was the night a boat was allegedly stolen by drug dealers, who used it for an offshore pickup and then dumped it on a nearby beach!
Lance rose through the ranks of what became the Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol, which merged to become Marine Rescue in 2009. He’s currently an active member of Marine Rescue Middle Harbour’s Charlie Watch, as well as the Boat Master for MH 30, the unit’s Steber 38.
Over the last 50 years, Lance has balanced his volunteering with family commitments and his own business installing two-way radio aerials and TV antennas, from which he has now retired.
“The work I did was interesting, but I worked on my own, and you’ve always got to be on your best behaviour when you’re at a client’s house,” he says with a grin. “Whereas down here, none of that mattered. We work as a team to get a job done, and we have fun along the way. That camaraderie is very important for me. And when you’ve got a good team working well together, we can get anything done.”
