Local heroes busier than ever

FOR over forty-five years, members of the Victorian State Emergency Service have been volunteering their time to keep communities safe.

VICSES CEO Stephen Griffin visited the Bendigo and Marong units on Monday to thank volunteers for their tireless work and bring attention to the fact that demand for emergency response is rising.

“We want people to understand the number of call outs and the increases in demand being made on volunteers particularly,” he said. “Our last year has been the busiest year on record.

“We’ve had over 500,000 hours of volunteer time right across Victoria, that’s our highest record coming from our bases of about 400.

“There’s been COVID, there’s been the issues of helping the Victoria Police with the ring of steel, the border closures, searches and so on, and then of course the weather events of storms and floods, it’s been a very intense couple of years.”

According to VICSES, the north-west region of the state has had almost 4000 calls for assistance since last November with 1901 for fallen trees, 317 for building damage and 195 on flooding.

Woodend’s SES unit has been the busiest with 869 calls, while Bendigo has had 474 calls.

Recently SES has assisted with storms, flooding and aiding in Victoria Police’s search for a missing Mandurang South woman last week.

Mr Griffin said while more people may be out on the roads due to COVID-19 restrictions easing and Christmas approaching, it’s important to remember SES warnings to avoid accidents and emergencies.

“Hopefully we don’t see those accidents but given the weather conditions, that’s probably likely to happen,” he said.

“We hope over time people react to the messages we’re sending out, particularly about driving through flood waters, being safe in their surroundings, even looking for trees that might fall on them, we’ve had a lot of those with the high winds.

“We’re hoping people really act in a safe way and think about their own safety as they go about holidaying over the Christmas period and coming out into the community for the first time in a long time.”

Bendigo SES volunteer Denise Montgomery has been with the unit for three years after previously working in Wodonga.

She said the training and support she’s received as a part of the organisation has been crucial in allowing her to assist the community.

“All I’ve ever wanted to be is happy and useful, and I am,” she said. “SES has been a big thing with that.

“There’s people from all walks of life here, name a profession or a job, there’s someone here that does it. If you’re in SES you know you can help, you’re trained to help, and you’re helping as a member of a team.

“That takes away a lot of the horror of things you do, because it’s balanced out by the teamwork and the support from colleagues, and the deep knowledge that you’ve been well trained to do what you’re asked to do.”