Merimbula Marine Rescue volunteer Stewart Dietrich has been named a RESCA finalist

His sea legs were established as an 11-year old, developed when he would walk down to his father's motor cruiser with sausages after footy to sleep the night in one of its four bunks, the sea legs were trained on Naval vessels serving Australia, and they are currently secured on the deck of Marine Rescue Merimbula.

It would be very unlike Stewart Dietrich to not be around the water.

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"When I was a kid I was practically raised on a boat up in Sydney, and when I grew up I joined the Navy, so I was on bigger boats for many years," Mr Dietrich said.

"And when I got out, I retired and went back to little boats again, back down here in Merimbula.

"It's been my whole life and still is."

He began his Naval service as second in charge on a 500 tonne landing craft based out of Brisbane, carrying trucks around Australia, even to Indonesia and the Solomon Islands.

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On HMAS Tobruk, he helped take peacekeeping forces to Sinai, taught Naval college students navigation, and sailed on the Royal Yacht Britannia with Queen Elizabeth II for four months during the Brisbane Commonwealth Games.

"When you join the Navy, you don't think you're going to be having dinner with the Queen, so I had several meals with her, including one where I was actually her guest at the dinner table," Mr Dietrich said with a smile.

He later became a patrol boat captain in Darwin, and remembers searching a cave after a report was called in to Broome police there was a skeleton in a cave on some island.

"One of the things I did in the Navy was teach navigation, so I've been able to bring that here because there's a navigation component for the training of the guys here," he said.

"I'm lucky I can draw on that as well. Teaching is very satisfying when it's people that want to be taught.

"I taught lots of people at different times in the Navy, often they were there because they had to be there, they were being paid to be there, but with the Marine Rescue volunteers, they're there because they want to learn."

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Mr Dietrich has also taught boat handling, held executive positions, monitored the marine radio network, participated in sea rescues, and over the June long weekend helped to fundraise by crisping bacon at WinterSun Festival.

Marine Rescue Merimbula's deputy unit commander Sonia Teston said that sometimes you were lucky enough to get the right people to join organisations, and Mr Dietrich was one of them.

"He's just an all-rounder. I think that's the difference with Stewart, he does all of it. He does fundraising, the boat, radio, he does training, he does assessments," Ms Teston said.

"Anything that needs doing, he'll just be there and put his hand up to do it.

"He does it with a smile on his face, and with a wealth of experience behind him."

The winner of the Marine Rescue NSW agency award will be announced at the RESCA ceremony at Bankstown Sports Club on August 12.

For more information, or if you are considering joining Marine Rescue NSW, click here

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