‘THANK YOU FOR SAVING MY LIFE’
A decade on, the miracle baby who captured the hearts of a nation is all grown up and forever grateful
It was the image of a 13-month-old baby girl, terrified and dripping wet in the arms of a soldier, that captured the hearts of millions across the globe. A decade on from the devastating Queensland floods, and that little girl, Montannah Creaser, now 11, is all grown up!
“Even today when I look at the photo, I can’t believe that cute little baby with such frightened eyes is me,” the gutsy Grade Six student tells Woman’s Day from her Laidley home in Queensland’s Lockyer Valley region.
“I can’t remember anything, but my mum and my nan have told me the whole story over and over – including the moment they thought they’d lost me!” she says with her trademark cheeky smile.
Mum Roslyn Perry tells the tale like it was yesterday.
“It was early January 2011, and for weeks the Lockyer Valley had endured huge rainfalls. My mum [Pat] was staying with me and my four daughters, unable to get through floodwaters to where she lived 40km away,” Roslyn, 45, explains. “We lived about 17km east of Grantham in Forest Hill... before we knew it, floodwaters were rising fast. We gathered at the local hall and were told we were going to be evacuated.
“It was getting serious – a Black Hawk chopper had landed in a nearby paddock. Mum grabbed my baby girl while I helped the others – she
was frantically wading through knee deep water when she dropped Montannah,” says Roslyn, holding back tears as she recalled the moment she thought her precious baby was gone.
Local Oakey-based army pilot, Warrant Officer Tony Young, witnessed the whole drama unfold, and raced to the rescue, grabbing young Montannah safely into his arms, while helping Pat and Roslyn on board.
For Montannah, it’s a moment she’s relived many times in her dreams.
‘I can’t believe that baby with such frightened eyes is me’
“The best part, it always has a happy ending. And forever and ever, Tony will always be my hero,” she says with a smile that would melt your heart.
“In the photo, you can see writing on my arm. At the evacuation centre one of the locals used a black marker pen to write our names and our parents’ phone number on our arms, just in case we went missing – that’s pretty clever, isn’t it!”
Sadly, the 2011 Queensland floods claimed the lives of 33 people, and destroyed the lives of thousands more. The raging waters, which began their trail of destruction in November 2010 and continued until January 2011, forced the evacuation of thousands of people from as many as 90 towns. The damage was later estimated at more than $2.3 billion.
With two new little brothers to play with, and three big sisters, Montannah, who loves drawing and wants to become an artist, hopes her story brings to light just how precious life is.
“As Mum says, we have a roof over our head when so many from the floods lost everything, including their loved ones,” she says. “One day when I’m grown up, I hope I can make a difference to someone’s life just as Warrant Officer Tony Young made to mine. Thank you for saving my life – I will never forget you.”