Alan Playford is Australia’s most decorated civilian — a paramedic, former firefighter, and humanitarian whose extraordinary career has helped shape the nation’s emergency response services. Best known for rescuing Norm Duffy from the rubble of the Newcastle Workers Club after the 1989 earthquake, Alan was also instrumental in founding the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service. He’s been honoured for saving over 100 lives in the Canberra bushfires and for leading the evacuation of 90 aid workers during the Rwandan genocide.
Alan’s story is now told in Through the Rubble, a powerful new memoir released by Big Sky Publishing in partnership with Simon & Schuster, with a foreword by former Governor-General David Hurley.