Justine Collins was on shift as a nurse in Dajarra Hospital when she received a call about an accident Stradbroke station, an MDH property 30km west of Dajarra, around 25 minutes away.

"The cook from Stradbroke station cook rang and said one of the stockmen had been rammed by a bull into the rails," Ms Collins said

The victim was Paul Woods, the manager of Stradbroke station who said they were mustering bulls in their holding paddock one of them "played up" as Mr Woods called it and clipped him in the legs

"I came back down into the yard with Marshall, my son," Mr Woods said.

"He (Marshall) threw his hat at him (the bull) to make him charge the hat instead of me but it was pretty bad for him (Marshall), he's not quite 10 yet."

It was worse for Mr Woods who was in a bad way with the risk of a punctured lung.

'My ribs were smashed into my lungs, I wouldn't have lived," he said.

Mr Woods did not finish the sentence but he meant he wouldn't have lived without the help of Ms Collins and the Flying Doctor.

Ms Collins rang the RFDS before driving to the scene because she knew she needed the help of Dr Don Bowley from the Mount Isa base and their fixed wing aircraft.

"I was a bit worried we were going to lose his lungs and he was going to die on my there," she said.

"We needed blood, we needed a fast scanner, we need equipment that couldn't be put in a chopper."

Ms Collins kept him stable until help arrived.

As there was no signal in the stockyard, she relayed messages regarding Paul's condition to the cook, who ran back and forth from the homestead to communicate with retrieval services via phone.

Ms Woods said the RFDS was the lifeline of remote communities and it was sheer relief when they turned up.

Mr Woods later made a full recovery in hospital and Ms Collins won the RFDS Local Hero award for 2022 in North West Queensland.

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