What We Do

• Operations
• Flood & Storm
• Road Accident Rescue
• Land Search
• Urban Search & Rescue
• Supporting Other Services
• Community Education

About Us

Unit History

In February 1977 a large bush fire destroyed a large portion of the western district. In the aftermath of the fire, Service Clubs and Volunteers were called into help in the clean up of towns and farms destroyed by the fire. The Belmont Apex Club was one of these groups and the township allocated to this club was Stretham. Upon arriving at this small but devastated township it was evident that this was going to be a massive job, requiring a lot of co-ordination of available resources - manpower and vehicles. In the back ground was very small and virtually unknown group known as the State Emergency Service.

After the clean up had passed the Belmont Apex Club decided to find out a bit more about this organisation, so a representative was asked along as a guest speaker. Two members of the SES arrived at a meeting sometime later. One being the then Regional Officer, John Peel, who was in fact in the process of setting up units in the Geelong Area. The other person was Bill Heath, controller of a yet to be formed South Barwon Unit of SES.

After a very interesting and informative talk and film about SES, several members of the Apex Club showed interest in joining. This was the beginning of the South Barwon Unit. With several members of Apex and several Rover Scouts signing up, it was several months before anything started to happen. In fact we were wondering if it had all fallen through, when out of the blue a phone call from the controller to attend the first meeting at the church hall in Barrabool Rd, which has since been torn down. Most members attended that meeting with uniforms of a sort handed out. These uniforms comprised of blue overalls, and army surplus boots and belts. Also at this meeting saw the main office bearers being elected. Deputy Controller, Peter Caldwell, later to become Controller and Chris Pickersgill, Communications Officer, also later to become Controller.

 

From these very humble beginnings, the South Barwon SES was on the way to becoming a unit respected across the State.

From a short stay at the hall in Barrabool Rd. the unit was moved to a very temporary residence at the Roslyn Primary School and was then moved to be now temporary residence in Mt Pleasant Rd. The year was 1977.

 

The unit gradually built up its equipment and was even supplied with a trailer by the Government to move the equipment around. Towed of course by a member's private car.

 

In late 1977 and again in 1978 the Barwon River flooded to almost record heights, with the unit being very active in sandbagging and evacuating. This was the units first major operation. These floods, although devastating for the area and its residents, were a major boon for the unit, with recognition coming from the Mayor and Council and the local news papers. The Mayor praising the unit for its work and promising council support. Major support was sought at this time from local service clubs for the purchase of major equipment. This was slowly built up until the Belmont Rotary Club came to the assistance of the unit with the supply of a vehicle, in the form of a Toyota twin cab Dyna, which they had purchased to use on the Victorian bike ride. After the ride was completed, the vehicle was presented to the unit. The unit then set about building the rear canopy and painting and fitting out the vehicle ready for operational use. A meeting was held and after a few ports, a plan of attack was implemented and in about six weeks the vehicle was operational.

 

This vehicle was the one and only vehicle for the unit until 1981, when it was decided to approach the council to purchase a F100 chassis cab. After a few meetings, the council approved the purchase. Another committee was formed to ensure the proper building of the rear cabinets on the vehicle and after several months of working bees and with the help of the Geelong East Tech constructing the winch housing and painting of the vehicle it was operational by Christmas 1982. This vehicle remained the units main response vehicle until 1992 when the unit put in a submission for a service supplied vehicle of which it received in June 1992.

 

The vehicle, a Mazda T4000 General Purpose Truck, was fitted out to the units requirements and after several months of vehicle familiarisation and driver training, was made operational in October 1992.

 

The Unit at present has a request with the city council for assistance in building a new Headquarters , but has been unsuccessful for the last 5 years in securing funding to see this project begin.