A Brief History of the Werribee Unit

After a chemical leak at an Altona North chemical plant, a public meeting is held to consider the formation of an SES unit for Werribee. Shire Engineer John Nicol is appointed as the founding Unit Controller. Members complete a Basic Rescue course with instruction by Regional Officer Brian Rickard.

"Home" is a basement area of the Civic Centre. The unit's sole vehicle is the ex-civil defence trailer. Gerald Greenwood succeeds John Nicol as Controller.

The unit assists Bacchus Marsh in fire support tasks at Greendale. Melbourne is blanketed by a massive dust and wind storm, with damage to shops in Watton Street. The unit is called to assist at the Ash Wednesday fires in Gisborne and Mount Macedon. A first aid course is conducted for unit members. A 1967 Bedford Van is purchased from Lilydale CFA and fitted out as a rescue/salvage vehicle, including a coat of yellow paint.

The Werribee River experiences severe flooding. Extensive sand bagging is required but several homes are damaged.

Fires spread from Staughton Vale to Little River. Unit members assist in evacuations and emergency relief. A wind change causes storm damage through Exford and the northern edge of Werribee. The unit is operational for six days.

Council provides a 1982 Commodore wagon as a second unit vehicle, which is fitted out and placed into service.

The unit's headquarters building is opened after much internal fitout by members.

Winter storms damage 20 homes.

A crew cab Trader truck is purchased from council and fund raising to construct an equipment body begins.

Flooding affects Lara, Little River and Werribee.
Approval is granted to fit red beacons and warning sirens to SES vehicles.

Local flooding again damages several homes.

The new truck (callsign Werribee Rescue One) is fitted out by Melton Unit members and handed over.

The unit is called to respond to flooding in St Kilda and South Melbourne.
Unit members search for a missing teenager, whose body is located near the Geelong rail line.
A home is stabilised after damage from a runaway car - a regular event.

Members search Werribee Park for a missing intellectually disabled male, who is found after he walked home to Brunswick.

The unit assists Melton with lighting after a fire severely damages Melton Shopping Centre.

Four teams attend the second night of the Coode Island chemical blaze, providing lighting to MFB crews.

Laurie Russell is appointed Unit Controller.

The Commodore wagon is replaced by a new Falcon with the help of a $10,000 interest free council loan.

The unit is called to assist the CFA at a large cool store fire in Werribee South. Altona unit is called for support.

Werribee is struck by a severe storm. 500 calls for assistance are responded to. Over 100 members from units as far away as Waverley assist, along with Werribee, Hoppers crossing and Melton Fire Brigades.
The Trader is replaced with a government supplied Mazda General Purpose truck.

A goods train is derailed at Rockbank. Werribee and Melton units provide lighting at the scene.
The unit joins Melton and Bacchus Marsh in the search for a missing 2 year old at Mount Cottrell.

Members respond to local flooding in Werribee and the Goulburn Valley.

The unit coordinates the SES display at an Emergency Expo held at Werribee Racecourse.
Severe storms again cause major damage, with over 140 calls for assistance. Units from Ballarat and Kilmore are called to assist.

Members search for missing Werribee man.

The Falcon wagon is updated with a current model.

Members assist with first aid, evacuations and lighting after a passenger train derailment.

Flooding affects several homes in Werribee. Members are also called to assist Bellarine Unit at Barwon Heads in reinforcing a levee bank and carrying out a 2 am doorknock.

A lighting trailer is designed, assembled and placed into service. The original unit trailer is rebuilt for storm damage response.

Severe storms cause major damage across the state, including Werribee. A crew responds to Frankston to assist with damage across the Mornington Peninsula.

The unit Station Wagon is again updated.
Members assist at grass fires at Little River and the major Dandenong fires.
Members assist the RSPCA to rescue a horse trapped in the Little River.
A display at Werribee Plaza for SES Week sees eight new members join the unit.

A team is deployed to Gisborne to assist with fire evacuations, and placed on standby for fires at Woodend and Trentham.
A comprehensive submission sees the unit issued with a rescue frame, replacement chainsaws, air bag kit, generator and an inflatable rescue boat.
Eight members train as boat crew with Footscray unit.

Wyndham City Council advises a generous increase in financial assistance to the unit after a successful submission.
The lighting trailer again proves its worth at a supermarket fire in central Werribee.
Werribee Unit coordinates a substantial contribution to the Emergency Expo.

The Falcon station wagon is replaced by a crew cab Rodeo utility.

Eight members flew to Sydney to assist NSWSES after more than 20,000 homes were damaged by a hailstorm. Members worked in the Botany area for a week.

Unit members assisted Police in a search for a missing person along the Werribee River. A body was located and retrieved by a combined SES/Police team on the third day of the search.
Lighting is provided at the scene of a fatal housefire.
Flash flooding affects Werribee and Wyndhamvale, including the Wyndham Lodge nursing home.
Unit Controller Laurie Russell is awarded the Emergency Service Medal and is also elected as VESA President.
A dedicated lighting vehicle is commissioned, based on a Rodeo Utility. Funding is provided by the State Government and Wyndham Council. The new vehicle is soon hard at work, responding to house fires, road accidents, crime scenes and storm damage.

Gerald and Betty Greenwood are awarded honorary life memberships of the unit.

Unit members take part in successful searches at Marysville and Toolern Vale.
The crew cab Rodeo receives a purpose built equipment pod, with joint funding by the unit and Wyndham Council.

Lighting is provided at the scene of a collision involving a bulk tanker carrying animal blood.
Wyndham is affected by major storms in September, October and November.

Seven members are deployed to the North East fires, where they assist with delivering warnings to residents, carrying out evacuations, logistic tasks and staffing the Bright Unit headquarters.

The unit headquarters is remodelled and repainted by unit members. Air conditioning is installed for the first time.
Werribee Unit celebrates its 21st birthday with a party and the handover of a new Ford F450 GP Truck.

Eleven members complete the Australian Emergency Qualification in "Storm and Water Damage".
Eight members assist the Victoria Police Homicide Squad with lighting and a difficult search along the Werribee River.

The Unit's inflatable Rescue Boat is called to assist Werribee Fire Brigade in accessing a scrub fire along Werribee River.

New Year's Day brings yet another call to a house damaged in a vehicle collision.

Unit member Rhiannon Deans-Smith is recognised as the City of Wyndham's Young Achiever of the Year, while Unit Controller Laurie Russell receives the Volunteer of the Year Award.

Unit members complete a successful search for an intellectually disabled teenager in Hoppers Crossing.
The Werribee Secondary College is badly damaged by fire. This provides the Unit with its largest lighting task to date, and members are on scene for ten hours.

Members search the River for a missing Werribee woman, who is located at a herbalist's retreat.
A Rooftop Rescue Team is formed to retrieve casualties from building roofs. The team develops its own procedures using existing equipment and skills.

After a successful funding submssion, the unit places its first four wheel drive vehicle into service. The Rodeo turbo diesel is soon kept very busy.

Strong winds and heavy rain batters much of the state, with Werribee Unit responding to 152 calls for assistance. These include several rescue calls and a search along Skeleton Creek.

The unit's flood pump is replaced by a new high volume unit, while the O'Brien fund supplies a very portable electric pump.
Members respond to 22 calls for assistance after another storm event.
Thirteen members complete the "Urban Search and Rescue Category 1 Operator" course.

The unit responds to Point Cook after a house is badly damaged by a vehicle collision, the second such call in a week.

January brings summer storms and the provision of assistance to the fire fighting efforts in the Brisbane Ranges. Members provide lighting, carry out transport and logistics tasks, and assist with helicopter movements.

Werribee and Melton Unit members carry out line searches at a crime scene after a murder just north of the Unit's border.
Members stabilise another damaged home after a car pushes a truck into it.
The Werribee Unit receives the City of Wyndham's Community Safety Award, while Unit Member Kylie Cowie is recognised as the Young Achiever of the Year.

A Brief History of the Victoria State Emergency Service

The Victoria State Emergency Service and Civil Defence Organisation, to give it the full title, started in the period immediately before World War II, the late 1930's were times of tense international relations. The Civil Defence Organisation structure was raised to provide a core of trained leaders who could be rapidly expanded to meet any potential war time requirements. After World War II the organisation fell into limbo, no longer having a perceived role, it was resurrected in the mid 1950s.

That Civil Defence Organisation Structure and its development of the Civil Defence Plan was the forerunner of the State Disaster Plan now known as DISPLAN. In 1962 it was expanded to cover peacetime disasters and at that time municipalities (several of which already had local disaster plans in place i.e.: Swan Hill had a River Flood Plan in 1957), were asked by the Premier's Department to formalise their plans under the Civil Defence Organisation and to raise units of trained personnel to carry out duties in the event of a disaster.

Much of that initial training was based on war time awareness with atomic bomb education being in the foreground, but it was in civil disaster like bush fire where the Civil Defence Organisation showed its value, it was never perceived that Civil Defence personnel would be used as front line fire fighters, their value was ensuring that the fire brigades were fully supported by all available resources to enable them to fight the fires, this included co-ordinating municipal resources like street washers as water supply vehicles, providing first aid, moving rations, co-ordinating the movement of fire victims and looking after their general welfare.

1962 was the year that the Civil Defence Organisation was given a community role. From this community role arose the need to ensure that the volunteers were adequately covered by an insurance scheme. Given the risks that faced them in that role and in 1972, the Volunteer Civil Defence Compensation Act was introduced with far reaching effects - the legislation attempted to define the role of Civil Defence volunteers, from this arose the Emergency Management Act and the State Emergency Services Act both of which reflect an amplification of the initial act.

The State Emergency Service became official on 5th March 1975 and on the 8th October 1977 was awarded its Charter. The Charter states:

"The role of the Victoria State Emergency Service and Civil Defence Organisation is to plan, organise, co-ordinate and implement measures that are necessary or desirable in respect of the safety of the public and are designed to guard against, prevent, reduce or overcome the effects, or possible effects, of emergencies to life, health or property within the State of Victoria."

The State Emergency Services Act defines the following functions of the State Emergency Service:

• to assist the Chief Commissioner of Police to plan and organise measures to deal with emergencies and their effects.
• to assist the bodies and organisations responsible for dealing with emergencies and their efforts to discharge their responsibilities.
• to deal with floods and windstorms and their effects.
• to provide a rescue service for persons involved in road crashes.
• to co-ordinate and assist bodies and organisations providing welfare services to persons affected by emergencies - but shall not include engaging in or preparing for armed combat

With the advent of the State Emergency Service Act, other emergency services began to recognise that the State Emergency Service was a valuable ally and a bona fide emergency service.

In 1983, in addition of the disastrous fires during which State Emergency Service volunteers performed so admirably, there commenced a plethora of investigations, probes, inquiries and similar activities which in every case examined the State Emergency Service in one way or the other.

Some of those inquiries produced reports which recommended the disbanding of the State Emergency Service or placing it into other organisations, it is to the credit of the government that the pressures to dissolve the State Emergency Service were resisted and the State Emergency Service continues to function as we see today.

The inquiries mentioned above were given the task of examining emergency management arrangements for Victoria, particularly as a result of Ash Wednesday, the upshot was that among its other roles, the State Emergency Service under the Victoria State Emergency Services Act 1995 (was 1987) performs two major roles:

a) Emergency management and planning functions.

b) Emergency operation functions.

The Victoria State Emergency Service currently has about 5,500 volunteer members, 150 units and about sixty full time personnel, stationed at Victorian Headquarters located at 151 Sturt Street, South Melbourne, and various country regional headquarters. Each group of regions, usually two or three, which align with Victoria Police regions or districts, is controlled by a full time State Emergency Service officer, the Regional Director, assisted by a Regional Officer and one or more Regional Assistants.

Since 1987 rationalisation with the State Emergency Service coming under the Ministry of Police and Emergency Services, several changes have occurred which are not generally noticed.

The vehicles provided to the State Emergency Service officers and Headquarters staff and those allocated to specific units are partly funded by Emergency Management Australia (formally the National Disasters Organisation), and Victorian State Government.

Communications equipment sent in to VHQ for repair is repaired by technicians trained by Victoria Police, and finally the Regional Director has the equivalent rank of Police Superintendent.