Kenilworth SES Local Champions

LOCAL CHAMPIONS by Janine Hill

KENILWORTH'S SES CHAMPION TEAM

Want to abseil? Want to do something for other people? Want to do something every second Tuesday night?

For the price of a couple of hours once a fortnight and the occasional weekend, you could be a hero for yourself, your family or your community. The Kenilworth State Emergency Service is a small group of people doing big things: helping with temporary repairs after storms, flood operations, land searches, assisting paramedics and firefighters with injured people, traffic control, and more.

Made up of 12 members ranging in age from 17 to seventies, the small but mighty group of volunteers was the rock Kenilworth needed when floodwaters cut off the town from the rest of the world in late February.

The SES moved caravans from the showgrounds, helped police establish road closures, organised the delivery of medications, headquarters near the corner of Charles and Margaret Streets, enabled premises to be protected by sandbags, and covered leaking roofs.

As volunteers came and went, SES mainstay of 21 years Kim Hennessy manned the radio for 10 or 11 hours a day, four or five days in a row. “Radio communication was done between the members of our group who were active in the floods and our group leader,” Kim said. “There was a campground that needed to be evacuated. And early on the first morning, we had to put some road closed signs up on the Gheerulla Creek bridge,” he said.

“Our headquarters was used as an evacuation centre. It was just keeping an eye on everyone for the duration of the flooding.” Kim rates the February 2022 floods as the biggest event he has been involved in locally but he said SES members had the opportunity to participate in five-day deployments to other areas in emergencies. He was deployed to Innisfail to help with tarping houses after Cyclone Larry; Brisbane in 2011 to assist in the clean-up after the flooding there; and the Burnett area after flooding in 2013.

Group leader Greg Wilson said the SES was important because it provided civil defence activities not available through other agencies.

“I've had many police say to me how grateful we are at searches for missing people, because we provide numbers and very high-quality searching (we are trained to find stuff and we do it well),” Greg said. “One of the reasons that SES is important is that we provide a surge staff of uniformed and trained volunteers who people trust, that the other emergency services can throw at problems.

“A great example of that was moving the caravans from down the showground during the flood. “The police and fire services probably could have done that, but the fact that we could do that freed up those resources to do more important things. “The same with searching. Police could throw 50 officers at a search, or they could have 50 SES volunteers do the search and allow those valuable police resources to do other things.” Greg said Kenilworth SES was a little different to nearby SES groups, such as Nambour and Maroochydore, as it did not get as many callouts due to the nature of the community.

“That's mainly because we're a small rural community who looks after themselves most of the time. “We've had calls to help people with trees down only to find that their neighbour has cut it up and pushed it away with the tractor. Neighbours helping each other is a great part of this community.” Kim acknowledged that SES volunteers were sometimes witness to some traumatic scenes, such as serious traffic accidents, the devastation of people’s homes, or the location of bodies. Recently an SES volunteer was killed when the vehicle she was in with other volunteers was swamped by floodwater at Lowood, near Ipswich. Kim said support was available to volunteers.

“If they come across a traumatic situation like that, and there’s a member or members that aren’t doing too well, the SES provides a counselling service,” he said.

Like many other SES volunteers, Kim joined the SES after being invited to come along to a training session.

The sessions are held every second Tuesday night for a few hours, or very occasionally on a weekend.

Greg said the first six months were devoted to giving new members the core skills to safely carry out the functions of the SES, such as first aid, radio communications, and storm damage operations.

“Once you've got those base skills, SES is more of a ‘choose your own adventure kind’ of thing, where you can choose to do things like working safely at heights, chainsaw operations, traffic control operations, etc.

“We recognise and value the skills that people bring into SES. While we have training structures, we also call on the real-world experiences of our members to help solve problems and help the community.”

The specialist training courses tend to be held on weekends with different SES groups often taking the opportunity to host.

Greg said there was no other specific time commitment.

“Being an SES volunteer costs us nothing, other than our time. Everything from uniform, equipment and training are provided free of charge. What we ask in return is to help your community when the custard hits the fan, if you can.

“In terms of operations and training, we are a volunteer organisation and so we expect that volunteers' priorities should be their family and their work/study, before SES.

“However, we do want people to participate when they are able. Callout available is not rostered as such, but we just send a text out and those who are available respond and go to the shed.

“Sometimes we'll get no callouts for months and then other times we'll get multiple calls in a week... every callout is different.”

The recent floods could draw some new SES recruits.

Kim said it was not unusual to receive enquiries from potential volunteers while SES members were recently out and about.

The best strategy for anyone interested in joining was to contact their local group and get along to a training night for starters.

“We had a few people approach us and ask us what we do and all that. We just say if they want to join up, go along to your nearest SES group and do that and you can see what’s involved and get a feel for it,” said Kim.

The SES is open to Australian citizens 16 and over. An interview with the local controllers and a police check are standard procedure for entry and volunteers must also be eligible for a blue card for working with children.

Kim said the SES suited people who wanted to help others but it could also suit people looking to widen their social circle or challenge themselves.

“It’s not just a way of helping the community. It’s a way of meeting new people and making new friends. It’s also got that social aspect to it,” he said.

“And it’s about doing what you’ve been trained to do the way you’ve been trained to do it and to the best of your ability.”

State Emergency Service national mascot Paddy Platypus on left, with Blaze Koala for Qld Fire and Rescue Service - visit the Kenilworth SES.

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