Jackson Worthington

Oxford Dictionary defines loneliness as a sadness because one has no friends or company. Lifeline extends that definition to include the feeling of being disconnected from the world around you. Whichever definition you choose, St Helens resident Kevin Wiggens knows the feeling all too well. That was until he picked up the phone.

For three years a team of researchers combed newspapers, old books and Parks and Wildlife records in a bid to collect every sighting ever of the Tasmanian tiger. It was a painstaking process but the reward was a chance to track the extinction of the iconic species. Small collections of sightings had been collated previously but never before had a group of researchers brought together every recorded sighting of the thylacine.

For the past six months Soares Fatima Oliveria has been stuck in Tasmania. The COVID-19 pandemic left him with the difficult choice of returning home, or staying in Australia to work. After his wife was forced to return home he found a pair of loving strangers willing to take him in.

It is not very often that you are shoulder to shoulder with royalty in Australia. Let alone in the small regional city of Burnie on Tasmania's North-West coast. But on a rainy Friday morning with the temperature hovering around five degrees that was the situation members of the Freemasons found themselves in - although you wouldn't have guessed it.

Fourteen Tasmanians have been awarded the defence force's highest honour. They all have their own unique story of bravery to tell. These are their stories.