The NSW SES is celebrating 60 years of service this year, the organisation began in 1955 following disastrous floods across NSW that caused major loss of life as well as massive damage to property and infrastructure. The NSW SES has grown and diversified since its inception and has been instrumental in the response to many disasters and emergencies.
The NSW SES is the combat agency for Floods, Tsunami and Storm operations. The SES also provides emergency response in the areas of road crash rescue, vertical rescue, flood rescue, land searches and many other supporting roles to other Emergency Services. The SES volunteers in their orange uniforms (jaffa’s) are often referred to as the “Swiss Army Knife of the Emergency Services”.
For me the SES has been a part of my life for more than 22 years. Through this series of Geo-Art caches I want to share some of my experiences and the roles of the SES.
In 2006 the SES opened its call-taking centre. Wherever and whenever a caller rings the NSW SES 132500 number, calls a directed to the Wollongong call centre where a team of enthusiast SES call takers collect and disseminate the callers information. In the Comcen’s first year of operation they took over 43400 calls for assistance, it has gone on to be an integral part of SES operations.
