SA SES Staff & Volunteer Information

• State Award Winner - Community Response Teams

Friday 7th September 2007

SES (North Region) were awarded a Certificate and the State Winner's Trophy for demonstrating innovation and best practice in community safety. The award within the Volunteer/Community Groups Stream, Community Safety Category was for the Community Response Teams initiative and implementation.

In order to combat the challenge of servicing an area of approximately 40,000 square kilometres, Community Response Teams have been setup in 4 local communities. The teams are provided with first responder training and equipment to provide a first response to incidents. Such teams have proven effective where brigade responses may take longer periods of time to attend an incident.

The award and trophy were presented to SES by the Emergency Services Minister Hon Carmel Zollo MLC and accepted by Sindy McCourt and Matt Maywald on its behalf. Hawker SES Unit Manager Brian McCourt also attended the ceremony and spoke with Minister Zollo about the project. Brian and Sindy McCourt, have been instrumental in the research, planning and implementation of this invaluable innovation.

Sindy and Brian will be travelling to Canberra on December 6th this year to represent South Australia at the National Awards ceremony.

Top of page

• Certificate of Commendation - Emergency Management Course for Environmental Health Practitioners

The State Emergency Service received a Certificate of Commendation in the 2007 Australian Safer Communities Awards for its role in assisting in the development and delivery of these courses.

The five-day residential “Emergency Management for Local Government Environmental Health Officers” courses, conducted at Fort Largs during November and February were facilitated by SES State Emergency Management Training Officer Allan McDougall. The jam-packed programme included a wide range of multi-agency speakers who addressed topics which included, the recovery from Cyclone Larry, agricultural disasters, legal responsibilities in disaster management, severe weather events, understanding the media’s role in emergencies and public health aspects of disasters.

Attendees were driven hard but agreed that the programme had been appropriate and most worthwhile. Feedback on both courses was most encouraging.

Cave Rescue

On Sunday 9th September 2007 at 1.28am the Mount Gambier State Emergency Service Rescue Unit attended a Vertical Rescue located at the Cave Gardens in Mount Gambier.

There were 9 SES volunteer rescuers in attendance from the Mount Gambier unit with additional rescuers responding from Millicent.

They performed a Vertical Rescue of an adult male who had fallen approximately ten metres onto the rocky base of the cave. One SES rescuer descended into the cave to attend to the casualty while other rescuers set up the Larkin Rescue Frame to prepare to raise the casualty. After stabilizing the casualty SES Rescuers with the assistance of SA Ambulance Service Offers hauled the casualty to the surface. The SES had the casualty removed in less than an hour from the initial call. He suffered head and leg injuries and was transported to the Mount Gambier Hospital by the SA Ambulance crew.