Wednesday, 17 May 2023

State Emergency Service Chelsea unit

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (19:03): (172) My adjournment this evening is to the Minister for Emergency Services, and the action I seek is to invite the minister to visit the Chelsea SES unit in my electorate and meet with the wonderful volunteers who support our community each and every day.

For decades Victorians have been tirelessly served by a special group of volunteers that don the orange, and we want to give them a big shout-out today as part of Wear Orange Wednesday. They turn up in the middle of the night, in storms, in floods, at accidents and emergency incidents across our state, to support their fellow Victorians in those times. When communities are confronted with these distressing scenes, it is the kindness and compassion of the SES volunteers that has charted a course through the despair and uncertainty like the clearing skies after a fierce storm. It is that selfless service of our volunteers and the care that they provide that is the best part of the State Emergency Service and indeed our Victorian culture.

The Chelsea SES unit is a special crew. They are the oldest unit in Victoria. Established in 1953, they will celebrate their 70th year of service this year. They attend to hundreds of calls, and just locally. They answer distress calls across our state in rural and regional Victoria, and they even cross state boundaries to support their fellow Australians. Just recently we had the opportunity to open their $7 million Andrews Labor government-supported unit. It was an amazing day, and I want to give a big shout-out to unit controller Ron Fitch, who has 30 years service in the SES and was recently awarded the Emergency Services Medal, and Phil Wall, with 20 years service as deputy controller.

It was an amazing day to celebrate with our local community and recognise all of the legacy and service, but it was also a chance to acknowledge people who could no longer be with us. Natasha Drake is one of those people, who sadly passed away at the age of 27 from an aneurysm. We were able to, as part of that event, open the Natasha Drake memorial garden, a really moving and telling recognition of someone who had dedicated more than five years of her life to volunteering in her community, and the Graeme Russell memorial meeting room as well. Graeme lived and breathed the SES each and every day, and it was just a real privilege to join Graeme’s family and Tasha’s family to recognise the service of those who, sadly, could not be with us but who have underpinned the culture and the ethos of Chelsea SES unit for so many years.

I would really love to invite the Minister for Emergency Services to my community to see what we all know and love in our patch: the Chelsea SES unit and their volunteers are truly extraordinary. They are the oldest SES unit in Victoria, and I want to show them off and just show the best parts of the City of Kingston and what our volunteers have to offer as part of National Volunteer Week. We give them a big shout-out.