History and Organisation

 

The State Emergency Service was formed originally during the Second World War and were known as The Civil Defence. The organisation consisted mainly of men who were too old or medically unfit for active duty. Their roles were mainly rescue of people trapped in bombed buildings and preparing their communities for such events. In Australia there wasn't to many attacks on the mainland however the CD were prepared to defend their homes and families from any possible invading force.

In 1961 it was decided to rename the Civil Defence as the role was changing and it became the Civil Defence and Emergency Service of Western Australia. It was in 1974 that the name was changed to its current title and assigned roles for the service to provide to the communities around the country. These roles are divided into Lead Combat Authority, Combat Authority and Support.

The SES in Western Australia has the Lead Combat Authority for Earthquake, Cyclone, Flood, Storm and Civil Defence. The SES had Combat Authority for Land Search, Cliff and Cave Rescue, Road Accident Rescue (In some areas) and Evacuations. Our support roles include Airborne Searchers, Bushfire Support, Welfare and Communications for other services. We also have a large number of duties which fall into the miscellaneous category, these include Car v House accidents, Animal Rescues and anything else that is asked of us, USUALLY!

The Wanneroo Unit

The Wanneroo SES Unit was formed in the early 60's. It has been a very active unit over the years. We operate out of a purpose built building, which we moved into in 1985. The building has an underground operations centre with a shed area to park 3 vehicles. A new free standing 3 bay shed is currently under construction and should be in use by August 1999. The Unit has a current membership of 65 volunteers. Our local area of operation is a 2,000 Square Kilometre area made up of the Cities of Wanneroo and Joondalup. Population of over 200,000 people.

 

The Unit structure consists of a;

Unit Manager

Deputy Unit Manager

Admin Officer

Logistics Officer

Welfare Officer

Transport Officer

Training Officer

5x Team Leaders

10x Deputy Team Leaders

Team Members

We train every Wednesday Night in the skills required to perform our tasks. Each team acts as the Duty Team one week out of five. We have approximately 55 pagers, which are distributed throughout the five teams. We have a mobile phone for the Unit Manager and one for the Duty Team Leader.