The then 22-year-old saw a drunken man plunge into the rapidly rising waters of Lady’s Well at 1am on January 5, 2008.

Now eight years later Mr Wall  has received a commendation for brave conduct from Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove.

After witnessing the man being washed over a waterfall and hitting his head on rocks, Mr Wall dived into the water at the bottom of the falls. 

Given the speed of the river, Nathan had to dive under the waterfall, grab the victim and then come up between the falls and the rock face to prevent him and the young man being swept downriver.

Mr Wall’s actions had his younger brother Christopher believe that both had been washed down river as they had disappeared from sight, being behind the waterfall.

“I managed to swim the victim to safety on the other side of the river from where he entered the water,” Wall said.

“I gave him first aid as he had cuts to his forehead. 

“The young man was very agitated and still drunk and I had to physically stop him from diving into the water again and trying to swim back across the river to the camping area.

“We stayed on the other side of the river for over two hours until help arrived.”

The soaked pair were eventually rescued when police threw a rope across the rapidly running torrent.

Mr Wall tied a loop around the victim and sent him to safety first.

He said  he had no second thoughts jumping in to save the man as he knew the waters well.

As a child he had been up there numerous times, but on this occasion he didn’t realise how bad the flooding was.

He has never seen the man again and never received any thanks after the rescue.

“He wasn’t a very nice person, he wasn’t grateful at all and wouldn’t be treated by paramedics,” Mr Wall said.

“He was dead-set keen to jump in the water and swim back across, so I spent the whole two hours talking him out of it.

“But his girlfriend was grateful for what I did.”

Mr Wall said he was “shocked” when he found out about the award.

“I never knew I had been nominated, it came out of the blue,” he said.

“I’m very honoured to receive it.

“Depending on the circumstances, I would definitely [rescue] do it again.”