When Michael Priestley heard two tourists had gone missing in floodwaters near Alice Springs, he sprung into action.
The concreter had tried to cross the flooded Hugh River for work, but was preparing to send up a drone to film the water when a woman told him a couple had been swept away.
"I said 'What's everyone doing? Shouldn't we be out there looking for them?'" he told AAP.
For his selfless actions during the 2016 rescue operation, Mr Priestley, along with police officers Kirstina Jamieson and Zachary Rolfe, will be presented with bravery medals.
The tourists, a man and woman, had been left stranded after their car was swept off a causeway, leaving the man clinging to a tree and the woman further downstream.
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To rescue the man, Mr Priestley and the two police officers stripped down to their underwear and swam to an island near the tree he had climbed.
Mr Priestley threw a rope to the man, who tied it around himself, and then he and a police officer swam with him through strong currents and debris to reach a waiting paramedic on the other side of the river.
The lost woman was later rescued by a police officer about five kilometres from the site.
Mr Priestley, who grew up in Beaudesert, has lived through a number of floods and said he knows the escape was a lucky one.
"You just don't know what will happen, there's a real uncertainly to it all," he said.
He said he was humbled by the news he had received a Bravery Medal.
"It's a real honour just to even be nominated."
