SES pays homage to its veteran warriors
FROM the Geelong floods to the Black Saturday bushfires, Graeme Phipps has been at the forefront of emergency response for a quarter century.
The Wallington man was one of several volunteers recognised by the State Emergency Service at a presentation in Breakwater yesterday.
Mr Phipps joined the SES as a young man in Wollongong in 1990 before moving south to Victoria two years later.
He worked with assistance efforts during the 1995 Barwon River floods, the 2004 Grampians fires, the 2007 Gippsland floods and through countless storms and smaller fires.
But it was his work during Black Saturday in 2009 that sticks in his memory for the devastation the bushfires inflicted on multiple communities.
“Black Saturday was by far the biggest emergency we’ve worked on in recent years. It was days and weeks of work for so many in the SES,” Mr Phipps said.
Magda Phipps said her husband’s work as support unit controller meant he came into contact with many volunteers from across the region.
“Graeme has always been very dedicated to his work in the SES,” Mrs Phipps said. “Anyone who’s involved in the SES wants to make a contribution to helping others.”
Also recognised were veterans Murray Bennett and Graeme Jackman, both notching up four decades.
Mr Bennett joined the Winchelsea unit in 1976 and was part of the taskforces that helped with the clean-up after the destructive 1996 Sydney hail storms, the 2000 Newcastle wind storms and the 2012 north-east Victorian floods.
Mr Jackman was a founding member of the Barrabool unit before it became the Torquay unit and has held the positions of controller, deputy controller and team leader.
Other SES volunteers recognised at yesterday’s ceremony included Gregory Vaughan, Robert Burns, Susan Austin, Charlie Stevenson, Peter Ryan, Micah Spedding and Joshua Hutton.
SES regional manager Alistair Drayton said the volunteers assembled yesterday had chipped in to help during many of the region’s most dramatic events.
“It was interesting to look back on the changes in technology and equipment — that’s really changed the way the SES responds to fires, floods and other emergencies,” he said.