Trio rescued at Pykes Creek

A Ballan police officer came to the rescue of three people at Pykes Creek, diving into the water in-uniform and swimming around 250 metres.

The trio fell off a jet ski and were left stranded in the middle of Pykes Creek Reservoir on Sunday 11 December, when Acting Sergeant Sally Fairweather spotted them from the Western Freeway at around 6pm.

Acting Sergeant Fairweather spotted the jet ski circling without passengers and drove to the shoreline, spotting the two adults and child huddled together in distress, unable to reach their jet ski.

While all three were wearing life jackets, they were unable to swim and were left stranded in the water, with no-one nearby to help.

With heavy intermittent rain and a significant wind chill factor on the day, Acting Sergeant Fairweather removed her boots and belt before swimming out around 250 metres, retrieving the jet ski, navigating it to the group in the water, and transporting them back to shore.

All three were assessed by Ambulance Victoria at the scene, and despite being extremely cold, were cleared of any significant physical injuries.

Acting Sergeant Fairweather was contacted for comment but was unavailable to talk by the deadline – however, she was interviewed by Channel 7 Sunrise program following the rescue.

“I was just driving down the Western Freeway heading to my sister station down at Bacchus Marsh. I always happen to look down at Pykes Creek checking out what the water’s like and how many people are out there. On this day I saw a jet ski circling and I knew that wasn’t right,” Acting Sergeant Fairweather told the Sunrise program.

“To get the young child on board, he was one of my main concerns. I knew they’d been out there for probably at least 20 minutes, I certainly didn’t realise they’d been out there for 45 minutes. It was pretty cold out there, so to get them out of that water was a pretty good feeling, and I know that they had a pretty big sigh of relief too.

“To be able to do this and help people is certainly what I wanted to do when I joined this job,” she said.