{"id":66268,"date":"2026-08-06T07:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T07:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/66268\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T07:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T07:00:18","slug":"woman-who-shielded-teenage-girl-from-bow-and-arrow-attack-receives-queenslands-highest-civilian-bravery-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/66268\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman who shielded teenage girl from bow and arrow attack receives Queensland’s highest civilian bravery award"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Ipswich woman has received Queensland’s highest civilian bravery award for shielding a teenage girl from a man who was trying to kill her with a bow and arrow.<\/p>\n

Nicole Law was doing her fortnightly grocery shop in the Ipswich suburb of Booval in September 2020 when she heard the screams of a 15-year-old girl being chased by a man with a bow and arrow.<\/p>\n

While most shoppers ran to safety, the 42-year-old mother walked towards the danger.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t feel any fear at the time … all I knew [was] that this young girl was crying for help.”<\/p>\n

Starting a conversation<\/p>\n

Ms Law said she asked the girl, who had an arrow lodged in her hand, to get behind her.<\/p>\n

When the man appeared from around the corner, she held her ground and started a conversation.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

A man with a bow and arrow attacked a teenage girl at a supermarket in Booval, Ipswich.\u00a0 (ABC News: Anna Hartley)<\/p>\n

“I don’t know my exact words, but it was just like ‘what’s happening for you? Why are you doing this?”” Ms Law said.<\/p>\n

She said the man, a then 28-year-old named Benjamin Bourke, told her he had been recently hit by a car and was going through a “rough time”.<\/p>\n

“I just basically said to him ‘well that’s a really s*** time for you.'”<\/p>\n

“He ended up getting down and dropping all his stuff and looking at me and basically telling me that we’re ok. It was really weird.”<\/p>\n

Bourke was then tackled to the ground by two men, before being arrested by police.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ben Bourke was jailed for 10 and a half years. (Facebook)<\/p>\n

What Ms Law did not know at the time was Bourke’s intent and the moments that had preceded their encounter.<\/p>\n

Bourke later pleaded guilty to attempted murder of the 15-year-old and was jailed for 10 and a half years.<\/p>\n

In court, the prosecution said he had earlier fired an arrow at an Indigenous woman for racial reasons, and briefly considered killing another woman with a baby but decided against it.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t know at the time what pain he was causing, I just saw he was struggling and he was chasing this girl,” Ms Law said.Gold medal for bravery<\/p>\n

Ms Law’s heroism was recognised at the Royal Humane Society of Australasia’s Bravery Medals, sponsored by His Majesty King Charles III, at a ceremony in Brisbane on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Ms Law picked up the ceremony’s highest honour, the Clarke Gold Medal.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nicole Law was awarded the ceremony’s highest honour, the Clarke Gold Medal. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

She was due to be presented with the medal in 2024, but was not able to attend the ceremony at the time.<\/p>\n

Organisers postponed the event so Ms Law could be handed the medal by Queensland’s governor, Dr Jeannette Young.<\/p>\n

“That’s unbelievable, thank you, you saved her life,” Ms Young told Ms Law as she presented the medal.<\/p>\n

Also among the award recipients were three Sunshine Coast surfers who used their boards to help rescue two men caught in a bad storm rip in April 2021.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ms Law was presented the award by Queensland Governor Jeanette Young. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

A ‘sense of decency’<\/p>\n

Looking back at that day almost six years ago, Ms Law said she thought about the impact on the teenage girl.<\/p>\n

“It wasn’t fair that that happened to her, and that’s something that sticks with you for a long time,” Ms Law said.<\/p>\n

She said she had recently heard the now-adult woman was doing well and had been supported by her family.<\/p>\n

“It was nice to hear that … it meant a lot to me.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ms Law plans to hand down the medal to her grandson. (ABC News: Charlie Mclean)<\/p>\n

Looking forward, she thinks about her own loved ones.<\/p>\n

She said she planned to hand down the medal to her grandson, as a reminder of the family’s values and sense of decency.<\/p>\n

“I hope they’re proud of me, especially my two boys and my grandson … they will have something to look back on,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s just something special for them to have … [and to know] it’s okay to be a decent person.”<\/p>\n

“A lot of that gets forgotten these days.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Ipswich woman has received Queensland’s highest civilian bravery award for shielding a teenage girl from a man…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,82535,82533,82534,82538,82536,82537],"class_list":["post-66268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-bow-and-arrow","tag-bravery-award","tag-civilian-bravery-award","tag-clarke-gold-medal","tag-nicole-law","tag-royal-humane-society-of-australasias-bravery-medals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}