Ateam of local State Emergency Services (SES) volunteers will put their skills to the test at the national Australasian Rescue Challenge this week.
The Mount Gambier and District SES assembled a Road Crash Rescue Team who will represent the entire South Australia SES at the challenge, run by the Australasian Road Rescue Organisation.
Team members include team leader Brad Flew, tool operators Mat Tye, Ben Lamb and Riccardo Tralongo, tool operator and medic Dirk Nicholson, and medic Leeanne Grosser.
The team trained for the challenge for approximately five months, and this is the first time a fully Mount Gambier team has attended the competition since 2003.
“We are feeling very prepared,” Mr Flew said.
“It is about representing ourselves, the service, and our local area in high regard, and getting as much as we can from the challenge and bringing it back to the local community and other surrounding emergency services.”
Today the volunteers will attend a symposium led by subject matter experts, industry professionals and experienced rescue instructors from around the world.
“The team will be given the opportunity to learn a range of new techniques, innovation and new equipment that is being rolled out across the world in road crash rescue,” Mr Flew said.
The three-day competition will begin tomorrow at the Adelaide Showgrounds where teams will face several scenarios, including road crashes, a trauma challenge, and a CPR challenge.
“The scenarios will be based on real-world events, so they have taken learnings over many years to come up with various scenarios and every team faces a different scenario,” Mr Flew sad.
Mr Flew said because the Mount Gambier SES provided the primary road crash rescue service for the community, the event was a great opportunity for the team to hone and build on their skills.
“It has given us some really focused training to enable our response to be up there with the best to help the people on the days they need, the worst day of their life potentially,” he said.
“It also gives us an opportunity to see what other organisations are doing across the nation and internationally; it gives us a real opportunity to discuss and network.”
Mr Flew wished all other teams competing the best of luck along with fellow South Australian emergency services teams from the CFS and Adelaide MFS.
“The team would like to thank all of the local businesses and emergency services, particularly the local MFS crews, who have assisted us with training over the last five months,” he said.
“The support we have had from the community and our fellow emergency service organisations has been second to none.”
