Jim Hermiston had just been hit in the face with a pistol.

Despite successfully tackling an armed robber and holding him to the ground in the middle of a shopping centre, Hermiston found himself with a gun pointed at his head.

“I just heard the click,” he said. “I thought, ‘well, it clicked. That’s good. Still here’.”

The off-duty Queensland Police officer had just cheated death at nine o’clock on a Monday morning in a Brisbane suburb.

Today, Hermiston – along with 53 others – will receive a bravery award from Governor-General Sam Mostyn, to commemorate National Wattle Day.

His daughter Louise and the late Frank Putland will also receive an award for helping during the incident 27 years ago.

It was a cloudy day in winter 1999 and Hermiston was expecting a pretty sedate day off from work.

Going to the Indooroopilly shopping centre with his wife Maureen and daughter Louise was about as exciting as it was going to get.

Six weeks earlier, Hermiston had just missed an armed robber at the Medicare shopfront by waiting at the wrong exit.

On this day, before he went into that very shop he half-jokingly told his family to keep an eye out for a man with a gun and a balaclava.

“It was about a minute, minute and a half later, Maureen comes running out,” he said.

“I went up to the door to have a look, and I saw the guy. He’s a big fella, balaclava and all that.

“It was sort of just so funny. Six weeks later, the same thing happens. It was unreal.”

The man forced his way along the counter with a bag of money.

“He pushed an old lady out the way, and I thought, oh, that seems a bit, you know, that’s not nice.”

As the man left the shop, Hermiston ran up behind him, pinned him to the ground and removed his balaclava. A tussle ensued, with the man striking him in the face and threatening to shoot him.

Luckily Hermiston’s previous career as a Scottish league footballer in the 1960s had prepared him for the confrontation.

“You got a lot of kicks and knocks, and you just pick yourself up. So that’s in your system,” he said.

Hermiston’s previous career as a Scottish footballer prepared him. Photo: Aberdeen FC

Tensions eased once the gun failed to fire and the man realised he would not get away.

When the police arrived to handle the situation, Hermiston brushed himself off and went to have a coffee with his family.

He received a valour award from the police force but evaded much of the media, which was still grappling with the shooting of an officer 20 kilometres away just a few months before.

Hermiston, now retired, said he was still pretty “chuffed” 27 years on for his actions and honoured to be recognised. It was exactly what he joined the police force to do, he said.

“It might be cliche or whatever, but it was to protect the public, preserve the peace, etc,” he said.

Mostyn said the honours reminded Australians of the strength and depth of the human spirit.

“I want to send a special message of thanks to those for whom an act of courage has left physical or emotional wounds that endure long after the moment of danger has passed,” she said.

Nominations for Australian Bravery Decorations for people involved in the response to last December’s Bondi terror attack are being considered. They will be announced in a special honours list in coming months.

Today’s honours include Bravery Medal awards for a woman who evaded a stabbing attack and for a man who saved someone from a suicide attempt at a Cairns hotel.

Hermiston joins 21 others in receiving a Commendation for Brave Conduct.

This year includes a lengthy list of those acknowledged for rescuing people trapped in burning vehicles and swimmers caught in dangerous ocean currents, as well as individuals stepping in during violent incidents and home invasions.

-AAP