The people behind the campaign to bring a rescue helicopter to the south-west

That was 10 years ago, and Monday marks the day the helicopter was first commissioned.

Since that day it has been used more than 2700 times and clocked up 5500 hours. It's hard to believe there were those in power who thought we didn't need a rescue helicopter here.

Former policeman John Robinson said he remembered being told by a politician that he was "mad" for putting up such a fight for a helicopter because it would only be used for one or two critical events a year.

The long campaign saw a temporary rescue service come and go, and the mounting public, media and political pressure which saw a rally on the steps of parliament, petitions of 28,000 signatures and countless posters tied to roadside fences was hard to ignore.

A busload of people from across the south-west took their plight directly to Spring Street, and the petition that was tabled in parliament was the second largest it had seen.

Only a petition about Ronald Ryan, the last man ever hanging in Victoria in 1967, was bigger.

The campaign was a high-profile issue that dominated three state elections and showed the power of the people.

The message to government was being made loud and clear everywhere you looked. After being snubbed for so long, the region finally got what it needed when then-Premier John Brumby delivered the news a helicopter was on its way.

Cr Robinson, who is now based in Horsham, said it became clear soon after he moved to the area in 1996 that the region needed a rescue helicopter.

"Within a month of arriving, I found myself standing on a rocky outcrop overlooking the river at Hopkins Point watching this extremely dangerous rescue where two fishermen had been washed out of the Hopkins into the sea," he said.

Six months later the region had the Westvic helicopter rescue service which was a tourist helicopter with a search light attached that could perform what's called "teabag rescues".

Because that helicopter had no winch, a static line was attached to the chopper's cargo hook which was then flown out to where the person was in trouble.

Trained SES and surf lifesavers from along the coast could jump out and put a specially made collar under a person's arms and lift them like a "teabag" to the shore.

However, three years later the helicopter was sold because it wasn't commercially viable.

That's when the campaign for the helicopter kicked up a gear.

For the first 10 years, Cr Robinson was the chairman of a committee made up of members of the community, SES, surf lifesaving and CFA.

Cr Robinson said there was an agreement with Steve Bracks that if the community could raise $450,000 a year for three years then the government would put the service in place.

Then Woodside Energy stepped up and offered a 27-year commitment worth $20 million, but it was never taken up.

"I take my hat off to John Brumby," Cr Robinson said, praising the government for going with the Ambulance Victoria model.

While he might have been the figurehead through much of the campaign, even getting an OAM for his efforts, Cr Robinson said it was a huge community effort.

"I've no doubt that if it wasn't for such community wide support and ownership ... we would never have had it," he said.

''It was just a team effort between the community and the media."

Warrnambool's Stephen Lucas, who was on the helicopter campaign committee for 13 years, the last five as its chair, said there was so much support in the community for the service.

"It's a victory of the people over bureaucracy. The community convinced the government."

He said with people like Garvoc's Dominque Fowler and Portland's Portland's Keith Meerbach sharing their powerful stories, the government started to take notice.

"We were battling away in the background with the bureaucrats and pollies and in the end they gave in because the community was so strongly for it. We had overwhelming community support."

As Dominque Fowler watched the plane take off from Warrnambool airport with her critically injured daughter onboard, she swore the region would get its own rescue helicopter.

The region was in the middle of a public campaign to get a helicopter, and Mrs Fowler's daughter Alycia had been injured in a car crash at Allansford and was flown to The Alfred hospital in Melbourne.

Alycia was just 18. Seventeen days later she lost her battle for life.

Mrs Fowler channelled her grief into something positive - the fight to get a helicopter, taking her message directly to the steps of state parliament in Melbourne and to the Premier himself.

"Losing Alycia was devastating. We didn't want anyone to go through what we went through," she said.

"We've never been under the impression that had we had a helicopter earlier it would have saved her, we've been under no illusion as to her injuries or the fact is they can't save everybody.

"We know it would have helped but we don't know to what extent.

"Ironically, had she survived we wouldn't have been able to afford the time to campaign."

Mrs Fowler said she was extremely proud of the community's efforts to get the helicopter.

"It was a long time coming and the community all banded together," she said.

Mrs Fowler said people still thanked her for what she did, many sharing their own stories of how the helicopter had helped them.

She said people have told her that every time they see the helicopter they think of Alycia. "And I think 'isn't that nice'," she said.

That day in December 2006, Alycia had left their Garvoc home to head into Warrnambool with her usual goodbyes: "Bye mum. Love you mum".

"She'd barely got her licence. She got full marks for her licence," Mrs Fowler said.

"We've always felt for the truck driver. She suffered a medical condition. We believe that caused her to black out at the wheel."

Every Christmas Mrs Fowler delivers a hamper of donated goodies to the paramedics base at the airport, where outside is a memorial garden in her honour. A place paramedics can take time out to reflect. The motto on her plaque reads: "Life isn't about surviving the storm but learning to dance in the rain".

Along with the HEMS4, the campaign brought with it friendships that have stood the test of time, she said.

"It's been beautiful," she said.

She said there were so many people who had helped in the campaign

"She would be so proud of us," Mrs Fowler said.

"It is a bit of testament to her. It was by no means a solo effort. It was remarkable."

Fearing the bus trip to Melbourne's parliament house packed with community members and media would not be enough to convince the government to act, Mrs Fowler said she was working on what to do next.

"I was going to jump on top of our big machinery shed and write her name on top so that all aircraft flying over would be able to see it," she said.

"It was going to be All Lives Yearn for a Chopper In this Area, and that was her acronym. It was not going to end if we weren't successful with that meeting.

"And then for the premier to ring me to say he had some news. Just wow, very overwhelming.

"It was always for the community. It has never been about me or her."

Barb Heazlewood hasn't forgotten the day she lost her husband and son in a fishing tragedy on a hot summer's day in January 2000.

While almost two decades have passed, Mrs Heazlewood said the events of that day and the weeks after seemed like yesterday.

"I can remember every detail fully," she said.

That tragedy was the catalyst for Warrnambool getting its own coastguard, and Mrs Heazlewood was a vocal supporter of the fight to get a rescue helicopter service for the region, sharing her tragic story at public meetings and with the Premier of the day Steve Bracks.

Mrs Heazlewood said the helicopter was a godsend.

"It's the best thing," she said. "From my place I can see it every time it takes off and I just think 'thank God it's there'."

She admitted that she didn't think that a helicopter service would ever get off the ground despite the massive push by the community.

"We just didn't think it would ever happen," she said. "You just feel a part of it. Same with the coastguard."

Mrs Heazlewood was the first person to volunteer with the coastguard when it started in February 2004, and it now does a lot of training with the HEMS 4.

"It's just amazing. It's like a category one tornado, the wind from the rotors," she said.

Despite being a vocal campaigner for a helicopter, Mrs Heazlewood said a helicopter wouldn't have saved her loved ones.

"At the time you didn't know that," she said.

Mrs Heazlewood said she and her husband Gerald, who was known as Prop, were really close.

"Just absolute soulmates. He was a real prankster and loved to joke and loved playing tricks on people. He was just gorgeous," she said.

That 40 degree day Prop, an experienced amateur fisherman was a deckie for the day on their son's cray fishing boat.

David, also known as Snow because his hair was as blond as his father's, was joint owner of the boat along with a friend who couldn't go out fishing that day because he had to go to his grandmother's funeral in Ballarat.

The mates had had a such a good catch the night before that David decided to go out again that day.

They left from Warrnambool, and at some point that day, perhaps around lunchtime, there was an accident out near Peterborough.

"We don't know what happened," she said.

"Apparently there was a big whirly wind that came through Port Fairy, came across the bay and came up the land where they were fishing.

"The theory is that that would have lifted the boat."

Mrs Heazlewood said both were experienced at sea, were very safety conscious and really good swimmers.

When they didn't return late that day, Mrs Heazlewood raised the alarm all the while thinking they'd be waiting on rocks somewhere waiting here to be rescued and thinking they'd be so cross because the water police had sent a helicopter.

The boat was located and her husband's body was found the next day.

For weeks, David's mates and nephew would walk along the cliffs everyday looking for him.

Two weeks later, on the day they held a memorial service at Thunder Point for David, his body was spotted by the tourist helicopter - the pilot on his travels up the coast each day would fly in close to the cliff just in case.

"I had three funerals to organise in four weeks. We had Prop's and there was about 1400 people at that one and then we had David's memorial and there was about 800 people at that and then when they found David. We had a graveside service for him at the cemetery," she said.

"It was hard to know what to do.

"We'd let all these white balloons go at Thunder Point and someone said they reckon that lifted him up."

The next day police were notified and someone abseiled down the cliff to retrieve his body.

"It was so good because you were forever looking for him," Mrs Heazlewood said.

"My thoughts were that they both died together, they were great mates and they both died doing what they loved ... so that's what got me through I think."

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