Two long-serving Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) paramedics have received the ultimate reward for their dedication and commitment to the service - Baralaba Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Vaughan Mason and North Lakes Senior Operations Supervisor (SOS) Doug Buchanan were named in the Australia Day 2025 Honours list.
The pair will receive Australian Service Medals (ASM) - the highest professional recognition a paramedic can receive.
Both Doug and Vaughan began their careers with the QAS as student paramedics – in 2004 and 2006 respectively.
And both think nothing of going well above and beyond their normal duties and exemplify what it means to be a QAS paramedic.
North Lakes SOS Doug Buchanan is being recognised for his continued and unwavering dedication to the service, his staff, and patients.
His colleagues agree Doug displays a genuine commitment to patient-centred excellence, and his leadership skills have made a lasting impact on his staff and community.
“I’m very very humbled to be even considered to accept this award,” Doug said.
“I guess I’m most proud of being able to have travelled around the state and worked in a variety of roles both metro (and) rural and regional areas to learn from the people that I work for and with, and around to gain different levels of experience from that and then bring it all back to my career now where I can try and impart some of that knowledge and try and support both our staff and our patients and obviously the organisation from the experience that I’ve learnt from.”
Doug’s extensive experience has also made him a valuable asset in many critical and high-stress emergency situations, acting as scene commander and patient care officer in countless multiple-vehicle and fatal road traffic crashes, cardiac arrests and both the 2010-2011 Brisbane floods and the North Queensland Floods in 2019.
On reflection Doug said he has valued his time out west as a single-response officer equally as much as his time spent in emergency response vehicles in Fortitude Valley on a Friday or Saturday night. No matter where he’s working, Doug’s primary love for the job has always been that oft-heard sentiment from a paramedic – ‘I love helping people on the worst day of their life’.
“I’ve enjoyed being able to support people when they’re having a bad day. Being able to help people in the community to improve their situation that they find themselves in that’s a very honourable and rewarding aspect of the job.”
From the city to the country, Baralaba OIC Vaughan Mason works as a single-response officer in the remote location of Baralaba – about two hours southwest of Gladstone.
Vaughan was equally shocked and humbled by his nomination for an ASM.
“It’s what I do anyway but it’s just an absolutely fantastic opportunity - just very very humbled by the opportunity,” Vaughan said.
Vaughan is being recognised for his passion and drive in promoting community education and preparedness, regularly undertaking CPR Awareness in his local community as well as those further afield.
He is also a committed Cultural Capability Champion, Peer Support Officer, and a strong advocate for the RESQ R000s program, the Local Ambulance Committee, and the installation of defibrillation devices around his local community.
“I really really love this career, this pathway that I’m on and I feel very blessed with it and every day is just so totally different. The opportunities and the people that I’ve met and what I’ve been able to do and achieve, and really do know and believe that we really do make a difference to a lot of people.” Vaughan said.
Notably, Vaughan received a QBank Everyday Heroes award for his joint efforts in saving a man from a grain silo in 2023. But one of his proudest moments as a QAS paramedic came only last year, when one of his past Community CPR Awareness students in Baralaba put his skills to use on a person in cardiac arrest years later in Victoria.
“It made a whole world of difference to that person’s life. It just absolutely humbled me and really blew my mind away - that was 1,900 kilometres away and something that we’ve done makes a big difference,” Vaughan said.
QAS Commissioner Craig Emery said these officers exemplify what it means to be a QAS paramedic. Their dedication and contribution to our organisation and the people of Queensland is truly beyond measure, and I congratulate them and thank them wholeheartedly for their service.
Vaughan and Doug will be presented their medals by the Queensland Governor during investiture ceremonies later this year.