New South Wales State Emergency Service

New South Wales State Emergency Service
New South Wales State Emergency Service
	NSW SES volunteers (in orange overalls) assist at the Thredbo landslide, 1997
Agency overview
Formed	1989
Preceding agencies	State Emergency Services; (April 1955 – September 1955); Civil Defence; (September 1955 – 1989)
Jurisdiction	New South Wales
Minister responsible	Hon. Mike Gallacher MP, Minister for Police and Emergency Services
Agency executive	Murray Kear AFSM, Commissioner
Key document	State Emergency Service Act, 1989 (NSW)
Website
	www.ses.nsw.gov.au

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The New South Wales State Emergency Service or SES, an agency of the Government of New South Wales, is an emergency and rescue service dedicated to assisting the community in times of natural and man-made disasters. The SES is made up almost entirely of 10,000 volunteer members, via 228 suburban, regional and rural units located throughout New South Wales. The volunteers are easily identified by their distinctive orange overalls.

With its history going back to 1955, a State Emergency Services' organisation was established after the devastating Hunter Valley floods of 1955, merged with Civil Defence in response to fears of a nuclear attack and then restructured in 1972 and again in 1989, following the enactment of the State Emergency Service Act, 1989 (NSW).

The Commissioner of the New South Wales State Emegency Service is Murray Kear AFSM, who reports to the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, the Hon. Mike Gallacher MP.

[edit] Emergency support

The major responsibilities of the NSW SES are for flood, tsunami and storm operations. The SES also provides the majority of general rescue effort in the rural parts of the state. This includes road crash rescue, vertical rescue, bush search and rescue, evidence searches (both metropolitan and rural) and other forms of specialist rescue that may be required due to local threats. The Service's trained rescuers also support the full-time emergency services during major disasters.^[1]

The NSW SES also assists other emergency services when they are performing major operations. These services include the New South Wales Police Force, the NSW Rural Fire Service, the Fire and Rescue NSW and the Ambulance Service of New South Wales.

[edit] Organisational structure

The state headquarters of the SES is located in Wollongong, with 17 regional headquarters located across the state. Region boundaries are generally based on river catchments, reflecting that floods are a major part of their work. The boundaries for the SES's 228 units are based on local government boundaries.

SES volunteer units are managed by Unit Controllers. Where there is more than one unit in a local government area, or a number of units in close concentration or a single, large and busy unit, a Local Controller is appointed to oversee operations on a larger scale than at the indivudual unit but smaller scale than at the Regional Headquarters. Region offices are managed by a Region Controller. Offices also have a Deputy Region Controller, Learning and Development Officer, Business Services Manager and Administration Officer. Volunteers may also be attached to a region office.

The 17 regions are: Sydney Northern, Sydney Southern, Sydney Western, Illawarra South Coast, Hunter, Oxley, Clarence Nambucca, Richmond Tweed, Namoi, North West, Far West, Murray, Murrumbidgee, Central West, Southern Highlands, Lachlan, Macquarie.

At a state level, Directors are responsible for key functional areas (Logistics, Operations, Human Services, Information Technology and Emergency Risk Management). All these positions are based at SES State Headquarters in Wollongong.

[edit] Funding and support

While the SES is a state-wide recognized emergency service and receives from the state government, primarily individual units receive funding from their local councils and from donations made by members of the public.