Another year has passed us by and unlike previous years our municipal area was left relatively unscathed.
This is some what contradicted by our operational figures .Incident callouts have risen by 37% on the previous year. Motor vehicle accident callouts have risen 40% whilst all other incident types have not had any major differences noticed on last year reports. Again this year no serious injuries were incurred at any of the motor vehicle accidents attended by the unit (the figures on MVA’s are also believed to be slightly down on the actual accidents occurring in the area due to the services not being required e.g. Vehicles being attended to by RACT etc. Major forcible entry was not required at any of the incidents attended by the unit. . It would appear that driver error / inattention was the cause of most accidents.
As with previous years our SES volunteers have had a close working relationship with the other emergency services, this was shown with SES volunteers providing lighting, welfare and traffic control at a structural fire in Cranbrook as well as provide lighting to an ambulance callout involving the helicopter.
Volunteers also assisted Tas Ambulance and Parks with a stretcher carry off the Wine Glass Bay track where a young boy had fallen and sustained a suspected broken ankle.
As with previous years our region goes from one extreme to the other so where would we be without floods and storms, volunteers responded to 7 flood related callouts primarily for precautionary sand bagging. Crews also patrolled the highway to Cranbrook and placed road signage where necessary. A storm response to the Swansea Council offices saw members secure and reaffix sheets of roofing iron to the front section of the building; this was done in adverse conditions on a slippery roof.
A total of 35 incidents were attended by our volunteers last financial year this equated to 140 operational person hours.
This was supported by our training both regional and local; training has increase by 10% on last year thus showing that our members are still maintaining a high skill level. Training included 41events with some 550 person hours. Training this year has included courses conducted by regional staff in communications, chainsaw operations, and storm damage and team leaders. At a unit level we have had a strong focus on our primary role of road crash rescue mixed with lighting, storm damage and search and rescue. Major exercises have helped in our training efforts with exercises conducted in the operation of our roof top safety systems on Morris’s store roof, vehicle extrication techniques and patient care with the local ambulance officers. This year’s training was finalised with a joint services exercise held in Maria street Swansea where two cars had crashed into each other with four patient requiring extrication and varying levels of medical care , this day was a great success and everyone took something away from the experience . We are currently undertaking a review of our current training props and needs and organising items that will help to make our training experience more challenging and realistic. Items recently purchased include a smoke machine for use with motor vehicle training, we have also been lucky to find a source of expired fire extinguishers for training purposes which has gave our volunteers a better understanding of the usefulness of these items.
Our volunteers also attended the following events providing both static and rescue displays, Swansea Craft fair, Australia Day Fun Day, Hawks Footy Day and the Swansea Christmas Parade. Traffic management was provided for the Colesbay 100 Triathlon and the Tour De Cure signature bike ride.
We are very lucky to have a small unit of dedicated volunteers always ready to assist the community and to maintain their skill levels at such a high standard. All members should be proud of the effort they have put in over the past twelve months.
As a unit we have also been undertaking the process of updating our equipment audit adding year of purchase as well as Electrical testing details a Work place health and safety audit has also been undertaken and will now be conducted every year.
Promotion of the unit has continued with an online presence on face book as well as our website, thanks to council for organising the link from the council front page. Items such a key rings , drink holders , pens and mugs all displaying our unit logo , triple zero , ses 132 500 and web site address have also be very popular . They help to provide ongoing promotion of both the unit and the vital phone numbers.
Milestones for members last financial year were Lindsay Houchen receiving his ten year medal and Kelvin Jones his 15 year pin.
Again all of these activities would not be possible without the commitment of our volunteers a minimum of 40 hours has been put in to keeping thing running outside of training and incidents, this doesn’t include the administration hours spent by the various members on reports and correspondence.
I was also personally very lucky to attend a volunteer’s leadership course at the Australian Emergency Management Institute at Mount Macedon last December this was very rewarding and beneficial and many lessons learnt have already been put into practice at our unit level.
As usual we extend an invitation to council management, staff and councillors to attend the unit and see what we do and offer our great municipality its residents and passing tourists.
We appreciate all that council has done to support our volunteers during the year and look forward to this continued support into the future.
We also look forward to the possibility of new premises for our emergency services in Swansea allowing us to better cater for our volunteers, council, the community and the traveling public in our municipal area.
This is some what contradicted by our operational figures .Incident callouts have risen by 37% on the previous year. Motor vehicle accident callouts have risen 40% whilst all other incident types have not had any major differences noticed on last year reports. Again this year no serious injuries were incurred at any of the motor vehicle accidents attended by the unit (the figures on MVA’s are also believed to be slightly down on the actual accidents occurring in the area due to the services not being required e.g. Vehicles being attended to by RACT etc. Major forcible entry was not required at any of the incidents attended by the unit. . It would appear that driver error / inattention was the cause of most accidents.
As with previous years our SES volunteers have had a close working relationship with the other emergency services, this was shown with SES volunteers providing lighting, welfare and traffic control at a structural fire in Cranbrook as well as provide lighting to an ambulance callout involving the helicopter.
Volunteers also assisted Tas Ambulance and Parks with a stretcher carry off the Wine Glass Bay track where a young boy had fallen and sustained a suspected broken ankle.
As with previous years our region goes from one extreme to the other so where would we be without floods and storms, volunteers responded to 7 flood related callouts primarily for precautionary sand bagging. Crews also patrolled the highway to Cranbrook and placed road signage where necessary. A storm response to the Swansea Council offices saw members secure and reaffix sheets of roofing iron to the front section of the building; this was done in adverse conditions on a slippery roof.
A total of 35 incidents were attended by our volunteers last financial year this equated to 140 operational person hours.
This was supported by our training both regional and local; training has increase by 10% on last year thus showing that our members are still maintaining a high skill level. Training included 41events with some 550 person hours. Training this year has included courses conducted by regional staff in communications, chainsaw operations, and storm damage and team leaders. At a unit level we have had a strong focus on our primary role of road crash rescue mixed with lighting, storm damage and search and rescue. Major exercises have helped in our training efforts with exercises conducted in the operation of our roof top safety systems on Morris’s store roof, vehicle extrication techniques and patient care with the local ambulance officers. This year’s training was finalised with a joint services exercise held in Maria street Swansea where two cars had crashed into each other with four patient requiring extrication and varying levels of medical care , this day was a great success and everyone took something away from the experience . We are currently undertaking a review of our current training props and needs and organising items that will help to make our training experience more challenging and realistic. Items recently purchased include a smoke machine for use with motor vehicle training, we have also been lucky to find a source of expired fire extinguishers for training purposes which has gave our volunteers a better understanding of the usefulness of these items.
Our volunteers also attended the following events providing both static and rescue displays, Swansea Craft fair, Australia Day Fun Day, Hawks Footy Day and the Swansea Christmas Parade. Traffic management was provided for the Colesbay 100 Triathlon and the Tour De Cure signature bike ride.
We are very lucky to have a small unit of dedicated volunteers always ready to assist the community and to maintain their skill levels at such a high standard. All members should be proud of the effort they have put in over the past twelve months.
As a unit we have also been undertaking the process of updating our equipment audit adding year of purchase as well as Electrical testing details a Work place health and safety audit has also been undertaken and will now be conducted every year.
Promotion of the unit has continued with an online presence on face book as well as our website, thanks to council for organising the link from the council front page. Items such a key rings , drink holders , pens and mugs all displaying our unit logo , triple zero , ses 132 500 and web site address have also be very popular . They help to provide ongoing promotion of both the unit and the vital phone numbers.
Milestones for members last financial year were Lindsay Houchen receiving his ten year medal and Kelvin Jones his 15 year pin.
Again all of these activities would not be possible without the commitment of our volunteers a minimum of 40 hours has been put in to keeping thing running outside of training and incidents, this doesn’t include the administration hours spent by the various members on reports and correspondence.
I was also personally very lucky to attend a volunteer’s leadership course at the Australian Emergency Management Institute at Mount Macedon last December this was very rewarding and beneficial and many lessons learnt have already been put into practice at our unit level.
As usual we extend an invitation to council management, staff and councillors to attend the unit and see what we do and offer our great municipality its residents and passing tourists.
We appreciate all that council has done to support our volunteers during the year and look forward to this continued support into the future.
We also look forward to the possibility of new premises for our emergency services in Swansea allowing us to better cater for our volunteers, council, the community and the traveling public in our municipal area.