This week 60 Minutes looks at ow Ravenshoe locals risked their lives following a cafe fireball, and the silent killer impacting our soldiers and an incredible story of babies switched at birth.
Heroes of Ravenshoe
They say the true test of your character is what you do when no one is watching; how you respond in times of crisis. Ten days ago the people of Ravenshoe in Queensland showed they’re made of pretty extraordinary stuff. Devastation struck their town when an out-of-control ute hit a gas bottle, triggering an almighty explosion inside the Serves You Right café. A fireball engulfed the café, and people and debris were sent flying out the door. The first reaction of the locals was to put themselves in harm’s way. Some braved the flames and the gas to pull survivors from the wreckage, while others showed little regard for their own safety to free the unconscious driver. All the while, a second gas bottle with half a tonne of liquid gas threatened to go off. This is the story of a very special town, where the locals have looked each other in the eye and said, “You can count on me, mate.”
Reporter: Allison Langdon
Producer: Garry McNab
After the Blast
Australian soldiers Lieutenant Garth Callender and Trooper Matt Millhouse are as tough and courageous as each other. A roadside bomb exploded next to their armoured vehicle in Baghdad 11 years ago. While Garth suffered terrible injuries from the blast, he is fully recovered, a husband and father of three girls. For Matt the story is vastly different. Despite emerging from the blast without so much as a scratch, today he is an old man in a young man’s body. Matt’s brain is dying – he is the shadow of the soldier, husband and father he was just a few years ago. As Ross Coulthart investigates, there is a silent killer facing our soldiers and Matt is just the first of many who are going to suffer.
Reporter: Ross Coulthart
Producer: Steven Burling
Switched at Birth
It is the impossible choice that no mother should ever have to face: Surrender the child you have lovingly raised for the last four years, to take back the child you originally gave birth to. It’s an unimaginable dilemma that in this day should be the stuff of fiction, but for two mothers this has become a reality after their babies were switched at birth. What makes this case even more perplexing is how the hospital could confuse the two babies – you see one is a boy, and the other is a girl. As Tara Brown discovers this Sunday, the heartbreak is insufferable for the two mothers involved, as one doesn’t believe the mix up, which means neither can agree on a way forward. Now it will be up to a High Court to decide which child should live with which mother.
Reporter: Tara Brown
Producer: Gareth Harvey
8:30pm Sunday on Nine
