Grateful for kindness

A retired Perth couple are thanking their lucky stars and the generous Pilbara community after being rescued by a team of mine site workers after crashing their caravan on a remote stretch of highway.

John Bradley, 69, was driving with wife Maureen along the North West Coastal Highway when he lost control of the vehicle after a strong wind gust came through and caused the caravan to sway.

Mr Bradley said within minutes, workers from the nearby Rio Tinto’s Mesa A mine site were on the scene assisting the couple, who were lucky to avoid injury. “The whole event was so surreal,” he said.

“As we were heading for the scrub with our caravan out of control, we’re thinking ‘this is not happening to us, it can’t happen’.

“We were just lucky there were no big trees in front of us.”

The couple had travelled around Australia three times and were just 11 days into their 12-month trip when the accident happened.

Mr Bradley said they were invited to stay at the mine site camp for the night and were provided with meals.

“The mine site workers were very concerned about our wellbeing,” he said.

“There are no words to describe how generous the Pilbara community was.

“We are very fortunate that everyone was there and that we were only a kilometre from the mine site.”

Mr Bradley also thanked the paramedics who attended the scene, Karratha Tilt Tray and Towing, and a Karratha couple, Matt and Paula, who offered to lend their car. “A near-disastrous event resulted in meeting and experiencing such depth of human generosity and kindness from complete strangers — we have to believe that our wonderful Pilbara, and Australia, really gives us hope for the future, and we really are in a very lucky country,” he said.