Respected paramedic passes the caring baton to son Tim

He has saved lives, specialised in rescue and intensive care, received a bravery award and even featured on the cover of the local telephone book.

And he achieved a long-held ambition on Thursday, July 13, when he spent a day working beside his 28-year-old son Tim.

Tim had been stationed at Newcastle for the past couple of years, but Ambulance management was able to organise a one-day switch to work at Bomaderry so Mr Hilliar could achieve a dream ahead of his impending retirement in coming weeks.

Both had similar paths into life as paramedics, that started with a burning desire to help people.

Mr Hilliar said he wanted to become an architect but his HSC marks were not good enough, and instead he and a friend became fire fighters in Sydney.

He said he came across a lot of drug overdoses and cardiac arrests and saw paramedics revive a few people, "and I thought that was pretty cool".

"They saved a few people in front of my eyes," Mr Hilliar said.

That convinced him he could do more good and help more people as a paramedic.

He made the switch a few years before Tim was born, and Tim spent all his life watching his father play a key role in saving people's lives.

With the insight he gained into the medical profession Tim wanted to become a doctor, but changed his mind a year into a medical science degree at university.

He had been a volunteer fire fighter with the Beaumont and Cambewarra brigades, which gave him a better view of what paramedics did.

"I'd be standing there with a hose not doing much and they'd be in the car doing all the cool stuff," he said.

Tim decided, "What dad did looked cool," even if his father tried to convince him to become a nurse.

"He said they're smarter and they do more stuff, but I didn't listen to him," Tim said.

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And while the headlines for paramedics were all about abseiling down cliffs and dragging people out of crashed cars, "I quite like looking after the fallen over nannas - picking them up and taking them to hospital, it's quite nice," Tim said.

"You get to meet nice people and hang out with them - I love a nanna."

As a rescue and intensive care specialist Mr Hilliar has done plenty of high-profile rescues which "are always exciting and interesting".

Among the highest profile cases was a rescue Mr Hilliar performed in 2001 when a woman struggling with metal health issues jumped off what was then the new Nowra Bridge.

Without a second thought for his own safety Mr Hilliar jumped into the Shoalhaven River after her, and held her afloat until two fishermen came to their aid, dragging them both onto a boat.

Mr Hilliar received a bravery award for his actions, and said instances like that where he was able to provide definite and demonstrable help to someone was "satisfying".

"Sometimes you do get people back and they do have a life after that," he said.