The S.E.S

Today was mostly a planning, sitting in front of the computer, booking and phoning day.

The evening, however, was totally different! Both Andrew and Dee are members of the S.E.S (State Emergency Service) and they took me down to the station to show me around and explain about what they do.

Now, I may get some of the following wrong as it was a lot of info and I was still fairly jet lagged - but I think this is the gist. Depending on which state you are in the Emergency services work differently. In Victoria you have the Police, Ambulance, CFA (County Fire Authority) and the SES. They all work independently of each other. The police deal with the usual things they would in the UK and the Ambulance the same. The difference comes with the SES and the CFA.

Both are services work on a beeper system similar to the lifeboat service in the UK. They are all trained in different areas but with some skills that overlap - causing friction on certain occasions but generally getting the job.

The CFA handle fires (including bush fires) and the SES who deal with Rescues. This mostly means car wrecks but can also rescuing people and animals (Andrew rescued a dog from a septic tank once!) who are stuck/in trouble. They showed me the vehicles they have, the equipment they use (the cutters are powered by hydraulics and are capable are chomping through anything except maybe the axle of a car) and how the organisation works. I got to see photos of training and also some of the incidents they have attended. These have included cars so badly mangled that you couldn't even recognise it was a vehicle and a car that went into a petrol tanker killing the family.

The SES also do community awareness stuff such as free coffee/tea stops and danger awareness for long distant driving, supporting and awareness raising for bush fires and many other things.

And the most amazing thing? It's all voluntary. Every single member of the SES and CFA give up their time to do training (and train to the same standards as paid workers in other countries) and all carry a beeper so that as soon as the call goes out they have to stop and go. The members at Andrew & Dee's included, amongst others priest, a woodworker, a policeman and a student.

An eye opening and humbling experience!