Bravery has a different impact in regional areas from what it does in big cities, both on those who exhibit it and their communities.
Today, the latest recipients of Australian Bravery Awards will be announced, among them police officers, firefighters, helicopter pilots and - perhaps most impressively - people with no emergency training at all, but who jumped in to help nonetheless.
While many recipients and those they rescued might have little or nothing to do with one another after the incident, in regional areas like the Wimmera it is more likely they will live in the same community, and see each other long after the traumatic experiences they shared are over.
This is true of Bringalbert South's Natalie Dearden, who has been awarded alongside Wimmera truck driver Tim Kelm for their respective roles in saving a mother and child from a burning car five years ago.
