‘Heroic’ Melbourne marketing manager praised for pulling three unconscious men to shore

A young woman who pulled three unconscious men from the waves has spoken of her heroic act in saving their lives, revealing she acted on impulse and ‘did everything she could’ to save them. .

One man died but two others were rescued after Brianna Hurst, 33, sprang into action on Sunday afternoon at Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Road, south of Melbourne.

Mr Hirst, a marketing manager from Melbourne, was taking his Labrador, Tobi, for a walk and was sitting on the sand at Marengo Beach when he heard a man screaming for help.

Hurst, a former swimming teacher, told reporters: “I took action without really thinking about what I was doing.”

“Looking back, I feel like I did everything I could to help them.”

Hurst found three men in their 20s floating face down in the water and took about five minutes to pull them one by one to shore.

“It was quite difficult. I had to swim out about 20 meters to catch him. He weighed quite a bit and was much bigger than me,” Ms Hurst said.

“They were all unconscious when we pulled them up.”

Other beachgoers assisted with CPR and called an ambulance, but tragically one of the men died.

As of Monday afternoon, one of the men remained in a serious condition at Alfred Hospital and the other in a stable condition at Barwon Health in Geelong.

Victoria Police Senior Sergeant Stephen Bull praised Mr Hirst for “putting himself at extreme risk” to save others.

Sergeant Bull told reporters: “I have no other words to describe her than heroic because she put herself at great risk to rescue three people she didn’t know.”

Hurst downplayed his heroism, saying he just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

“I was probably lucky that I was confident in the water, so it wasn’t an obstacle for me to help them,” she said.

She warned swimmers who were not confident swimmers not to enter the water.

“I would classify this as a dangerous beach,” Hurst added.

Lifesaving Victoria’s Paul Shannon said the summer of 2023-24 was the worst period for drownings in the state.

Since December 1st last year, 27 people have died.

“It’s been a pretty tragic summer. It’s on par with the worst summer since records began,” Shannon told reporters.

He urged people to only swim between the flags and to download the BeachSafe app to check conditions before swimming at unmonitored beaches.