THE difficulty of finding volunteers in towns outside Orange was highlighted during the recent Canowindra floods when Orange sent two State Emergency Service (SES) crews and Molong sent one to help.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
While Orange SES has more than 30 volunteers, the Canowindra branch is under threat of closure unless it attracts more volunteers.
NSW SES Central West Region controller Craig Ronan said Canowindra had six volunteers but needed 14 to be viable. He said that was shown by the reliance on the Orange and Molong crews during the flood.
“We don’t want to have to do that because chances are in the future Orange will have some flooding and Molong will have flooding at the same time,” he said.
“There’s a real risk of closing the SES if we don’t get that [volunteer] support.
“Canowindra can suffer from flooding and storms as we have already seen, both of which can cause widespread damage.”
Orange SES controller Kim Stevens said Canowindra was in a more precarious situation than Orange.
However, he said Orange SES was also always on the lookout for more volunteers.
Among the Orange volunteers is Bruce Smith who joined two years ago and is encouraging people to join the Canowindra SES to keep it going.
“It’s not very often that Canowindra gets a flood but when they do they need people who know what they are doing so there’s no risk to life,” he said
“I had retired at that time [of joining] and I just wanted to put something back into the community. When [I was] working I didn’t get that much free time to do something like that and I wanted to do something that was interesting to me.”
He said some of the benefits from joining the SES were learning a wide range of skills and helping people in a time of need.
Canowindra SES will have an open day at the SES headquarters on the corner of Armstrong Street and Orange Road, Canowindra on Sunday, September 13 between 11am and 2pm.
For more information phone 1800 201 000 or visit www.ses.nsw.gov.au.
For emergency assistance during floods and storms phone the NSW SES on 132 500.
tanya.marschke@fairfaxmedia.com.au