AGY-861 | State Emergency Service of New South Wales

Full description

The State Emergency Service of New South Wales (SES) was established by the State Emergency Service Act 1989 (Act No.164, 1989) assented to on 14 December and proclaimed on 3 August 1990. (1) This Act repealed the State Emergency Services and Civil Defence Act 1972 (Act No.11, 1972) and the new Emergency organisation replaced the State Emergency Services and Civil Defence Organisation of New South Wales. The agency was to comprise the Director, Deputy Director and other staff of the Service, and the members of the State Emergency Services units. (2)

The State Emergency Service had the following functions:
(a) to act as the combat agency for dealing with floods (including the establishment of flood warning systems) and to co-ordinate the evacuation and welfare of affected communities;
(b) to act as the combat agency for damage control for storms and tempests and to co-ordinate the evacuation and welfare of affected communities;
(c) to act as the primary agency for civil defence planning and as an agency for the conduct of civil defence operations;
(d) to deal with an emergency where no other agency had lawful authority to assume command of the emergency operations;
(e) to carry out, by accredited State Emergency Service rescue units, rescue operations allocated by the State Rescue and Emergency Services Board;
(f) to assist to carry out emergency management functions relating to the prevention of, preparation for, response to, and recovery from emergencies;
(g) to assist, at their request, members of the Police Force, Fire Brigade, Bush Fire Brigades or Ambulance Service dealing with any incident or emergency; and
(h) to maintain effective liaison with all emergency services organisations. (3)

The State Emergency Service was one of the emergency service organisations whose activities in general emergencies and whose activities in single incident rescues is controlled and co-ordinated under the provisions of the State Emergency and Rescue Management Act 1989 (Act No.165, 1989) which was proclaimed on 3 August 1990. (4) One of the provisions of this Act was the establishment of the State Rescue and Emergency Services Board, consisting of the heads of the relevant emergency services, which was established on 12 February 1990. The principal functions of the Board were to control and co-ordinate the rescue agencies in connection with rescue operations, and to ensure the maintenance of efficient and effective rescue services. (5)

The NSW SES was made up of five (5) Zones as follows:
-Metro Zone,
-Northern Zone,
-South Eastern Zone,
-Southern Zone,
-Western Zone. (6)

There were changes to the State Emergency Services Act 1989 (NSW) (SES Act) as a result of the Emergency Services Legislation Amendment Act 2018 (NSW) (Amendment Act). Changes were made to the SES Act to reflect the agency’s new organisational structure. These changes included replacing:
▪ ‘controller’ with ‘commander’,
▪ ‘region’ with ‘zone’,
▪ ‘region controller’ with ‘zone commander’.
The Amendment Act also made changes to the State Emergency and Rescue Management Act 1989 (Act No.165, 1989) or SERM Act. The changes that affected the NSW State Emergency Service directly included:
(i) specific inclusion of the Commissioner of the State Emergency Service on the State Emergency Management Committee;
(ii) providing the Commissioner with the power to issue an order under section 60D of the SERM Act. Orders can be issued for a period of 48 hours for the purposes of employment protection for volunteer emergency workers carrying out emergency operations. (7)

The SES was a volunteer-based organisation that provides emergency assistance to the people of NSW 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It had approximately 9,000 volunteers across the state that made this possible. The NSW SES also provided the majority of general rescue effort in the rural parts of the state including: road accident rescue, vertical rescue, bush search and rescue, evidence searches (both metropolitan and rural) and other forms of specialist rescue that may be required due to local threats. Volunteers in a number of isolated communities were trained as Community First Responders by the Ambulance Service of NSW. The organisation's trained rescuers also supported the full-time emergency services during major disasters. NSW SES also assisted other emergency services when they were performing major operations. These services include the NSW Police Force, the NSW Rural Fire Service, Fire and Rescue NSW and the Ambulance Service of NSW. (8)

The SES was accountable to the Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience who was also responsible for the state's fire brigade and rural fire brigade organisations. (9)

Endnotes
1. NSW Government Gazette, 1990 vol. 3 part 1, p.7102.
2. State Emergency Service Act (No. 164, 1989) s. 7 (2) (a) & (b).
3. Ibid, s. 8 (1).
4. NSW Government Gazette, 1990 vol. 3 part 1, p.7102.
5. Concise Guide 2nd Edition 1992 Q-Sp "State Emergency Services" p.18.
6. State Emergency Services website, About us, Our Zones, https://www.ses.nsw.gov.au/about-us/our-zones/, Accessed 12 December 2022).
7. State Emergency Services Annual Report 2018-2019, p. 7.
8. State Emergency Services website, About us, https://www.ses.nsw.gov.au/about-us/, (accessed 12 December 2022).
9. State Emergency Services Annual Report 2020-2021, p. 4.

References:
Concise Guide to the State Archives of NSW 2nd Edition 1992.