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We train every Tuesday night at 7:30pm and sometimes on Thursday nights as needs arise. We often use Thursday nights for vertical rescue training to keep our skills up to date, and to coach prospective vertical rescuers up to speed. From time to time we also do courses and exercises on weekends, ranging from social bushwalks to practice navigation skills, up to serious one or two day events to test and challenge our skills. Oberon SES is the accredited primary land rescue unit for Oberon and district, and is also an accredited vertical rescue unit. We have a long history of land search and cave rescue as well. Our most common callouts are land searches, typically about 12 to 15 per year, usually in the rugged Kanangra Boyd National Park or the many local State Forests. General land rescue work such as road crashes, and industrial accidents, occur about 12 times a year. We do 3 to 5 vertical rescues per year, and maybe a cave rescue each two years or so. Storm and water damage calls used to average about 1 per year but these seem to be increasing in recent times. The Oberon SES structure includes our Local Controller, Deputy Controller, Operations Officer, Deputy Operations Officer, Rescue Officer, and five Team Leaders. While this seems a top heavy structure for such a small unit, in practice we operate a fairly amorphous structure, where the leader for a particular job is determined by the needs of the job and the person best suited to it. As a small unit, specialist teams and leaders are a luxury, given the wide range of tasks we undertake, hence we widely use flexible leadership practices. In the past, Oberon SES has hosted significant inter-service events such as major cave rescue exercises, and the VRCau - Vertical Rescue Challenge Australia. We have sent volunteers to major events such as the Thredbo Landslide, and several major Sydney storms, as well as less serious events such as vertical rescue displays at Rescue Expos and Darling Harbour and abseiling out of the roof of the Sydney Entertainment Centre as part of a Schools Spectacular. Many of Oberon SES's volunteers
are or were avid bushwalkers, canyoners and cavers, and there
are still plenty of social walks and adventures to be enjoyed. Our primary rescue truck (Rescue 1) is an Isuzu NPS 300 four wheel drive so we can respond through winter snow and along some fire trails as required. Our four wheel drive (Rescue 2) is a Toyota Landcruiser 100 series, and the flood rescue boat is a 15' tiller control with a 40HP motor. Communications is very important
to the remote area search and rescue work we do, and as a result
Oberon SES uses a wide range of communications equipment. Apart
from the Government Radio Network (GRN) radios that form the
basis of our communications network, we also use UHF CB radios
between private vehicles, local organisations and with other
emergency services, satellite and CDMA phones, a portable repeater,
miniature radios for command within vertical rescue teams, and
Michiephones for communications through cave systems. We have
a complete field communications system set up in ammunition boxes
with batteries and power supplies so we can run a full field
operations centre almost anywhere. There are two particular types of people we are specifically looking for: active outdoors people who like bushwalking and associated activities who would be interested in learning to become land searchers, and possibly vertical and cave rescuers, or trackers; and anyone interested in Operations. Operations is running the headquarters, or a field headquarters, communications equipment, and logistics, to keep the field teams supplied, etc. These are two specific areas where we need more people, but we can use more volunteers for all our activities. Perhaps you don't like the sight of blood, so you are wary of getting involved with a rescue unit - there is still plenty to do in operations, administration, storm and flood response, and perhaps land search. There are jobs to suit nearly anyone, regardless of your phobias or limitations. SES does lots of training. Most is nationally recognised, so you can learn skills and take them with you to other units, services or jobs. Perhaps you're looking for a job in office administration but can't get the job without experience - we can help you out there! There are lots of spin offs from volunteering with the SES:
If you are interested in volunteering, here's what to do:
Our physical address is Albion Street, Oberon near the intersection of Albion Street and Lowes Mount Road. Click here for a map of Oberon. Our latitude and longitude is 33 degrees 42.1 minutes S 149 degrees 51.3 minutes East. Our phone number is 02 6336 1759. This number diverts to our two duty officer phones. Our unit email address is oberon.ses.ops@bigpond.com
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