Port Macquarie SES Unit will travel to Victoria to compete at Australasian Road Rescue Organisation competiton

The unit comprises of approximately 60 volunteers of which 15 are accredited rescue operators with the State Rescue Board of NSW.

Port Macquarie SES averages one request for assistance per day ranging from routine property protection to complex and protracted rescue operations in multi-agency response situations.

They will be hoping to bring home more gold following major success at the NSW SES State Disaster Rescue completion in 2013 and 2017, and the National Disaster Rescue competition in 2013 and 2017.

Members of the team set to compete at the ARRO competition are volunteers, including team leader Michael Ward, Michael Brumby, Serena Ward, Kevin Sherwood, Scott Witchard and Alfred Portenschlager.

Mr Ward said the diversity of the unit is their strength, which enhances their capability and supporting their work to make the NSW SES the best volunteer emergency service in Australia.

“This competition is all about information sharing between all road rescue agencies that attend,” he said.

“With a full days learning symposium to start the event and then three days of competition there is the opportunity to watch how other agencies operate and undertake rescues.

“We are there sharing knowledge and completing with top teams across the Australasian area to improve our rescue skills and will be focusing on working as a team to achieve the best outcome for the casualty, the same as we do on real rescues.”

Currently 18 teams have registered for the event. Mr Ward said his team will work towards the safe and timely extrication of casualties from simulated road crashes.

“A team will be identified as the winning team however it is presented as a challenge and not a competition as the focus is on knowledge sharing across the different agencies,” he said. 

“ We will be bringing lessons learnt back to the Mid North Coast region and beyond with the aim of saving lives and protecting our communities.”