At 3am on a wet and windy Friday morning in March, three people turn up at the Maribyrnong Council Depot in West Footscray. They are volunteers with the Footscray SES Unit and they’re responding to a call for assistance. The strong winds have started knocking trees down over the road, and the SES volunteers are going out with a truck and chainsaws to clear them. None of them are doing this as a paid job, and they’ll all need to go to work after they’ve finished with the fallen trees.
There are over five thousand SES volunteers throughout Victoria, responding from over 150 units. Dealing with storm damage and flooding is their most common task, but they also assist Police with searches for missing persons and evidence at crime scenes, support the CFA and other emergency services, respond to traffic accidents outside metro Melbourne, and deal with a wide range of other emergencies. The Footscray Unit is one of the larger ones, having around fifty operational members training weekly on Monday nights and covering the cities of Maribyrnong and Melbourne.
The SES faces a number of challenges. Fewer people volunteer with community organisations than in the past, and securing funding can be difficult as pressures on government budgets increase. But dozens of people from all backgrounds continue to put in expressions of interest with the Footscray Unit. Speaking to their volunteers, it’s easy to see why they find being an SES volunteer so rewarding, even with the midnight call-outs. On top of emergency response, many members of the Unit have taken on additional roles in administration, training, leadership, and community engagement.
Alex Vladica, a Footscray Unit member, says, “Volunteering with SES has enabled me to learn a lot of new skills including boating, working at heights and chainsaw use, with opportunities to contribute both operationally and in finance administration. This allows me to balance family, work and SES commitments.”
Member Amanda Stevens adds, “As SES volunteers we get to do a variety of things that benefit the community in various ways, and it’s always lovely to hear how much people appreciate the work that we do.”
SES units depend heavily on the support of community organisations to raise awareness, connect with potential volunteers, and fundraise. The Footscray Unit is now partnering with its local Bendigo Bank branch in Seddon.
Footscray SES Unit Controller Michael Bagnall says, “At SES, one of our core values is that we are part of our community, and that is something we truly live by at Footscray. We are here to help our community, but we are also part of it. We can’t do this on our own, and support from organisations like Bendigo Bank, who share that same commitment to community, is so important in helping us continue our work when people need us most.”
The storm event in March took several hours to deal with, with several crews going out over Friday morning to deal with all the fallen trees and building damage. There will be other storm events, as well as emergencies much harder to predict. In the past five years, members of the Unit have supported Ambulance Victoria with COVID-19 response, assisted with fire operations at the Grampians and at Colac, and rescued dozens of residents from rising floodwaters in the 2022 Maribyrnong floods. Fortunately for the Unit and the local community, interest in volunteering with the Unit remains high.
Footscray SES Unit Controller Michael Bagnall says, “Our volunteers come from all walks of life, but they share a commitment to standing up for their community when it matters most. Whether it’s in the middle of the night during a storm, supporting flood response, or helping in major emergencies across Victoria, they do it because they genuinely want to make a difference. I’m incredibly proud of the people in our Unit and the service they provide to Maribyrnong, Melbourne and beyond.”
– Adam Wakeling, volunteer, Footscray SES
We’re a proud supporter of the VIC SES Footscray unit. To support, become a volunteer or find out more – https://www.facebook.com/sesfootscray/
