from a victorian

[vr_driver]

Hi guys,

I'm new here on this board, and in the next little while, I may be moving to SA to the Kapunda region.

I come from a busy metro SES RAR unit in Melbourne, and I was just curious if there are any RAR units near Kapunda?

I've done over 7 years of rescue at my current unit, and was wondering if my services would be wanted/received well.

I saw there is a horsey mounted group in that area... but that's not really my thing.

Anyway, any thoughts or comments would be nice.

How does road rescue work in SA? Is it a combination of the SES, CFS and the metro fire service?

I've really got no idea with how your state works in regards to this.

Many thanks,
Steve.

[mack]

Kapunda SES are an RAR unit in that area, and cover the "Kapunda District" and surrounding areas i believe....

[Robert-Robert34]

How does road rescue work in SA? Is it a combination of the SES, CFS and the metro fire service?

The CFS,SES and MFS all do Road Crash Rescue work but it comes down to the area and  which RCR resource is closest to the accident

[vr_driver]

Thanks for the prompt replies. We've recently started closest responder here too.

Well, that answers my questions well.
Ta.

[chook]

Welcome aboard Steve (familiar with you posts on another - very Victorian forum ).
Yep its a bit more complicated over here, however Kapunda SES is a RCR unit.
Do you hold a National RCR certificate?
If you do RCC will apply, if not you can elect to do an assessment day (one in Barmera soon!) which if you are found competent will give you the National certifcate. Mind you we need to resit the assessment every three years to renew our "licence to operate".
Pity your not moving to East region, could introduce you to some people who could make your transfer very easy .
Anyway all of the best & I guess I will see you around.
cheers

[vr_driver]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the welcome and the quick replies.

I know this is a website for firemen, so thanks for letting me crash here for a while! (No pun intended) ha ha

Hi Chook. A familiar name!

Yes, I've got my RAR cert and a whole bunch of others. Have had it for a few years now and it still gets used. It's been pretty slow the last several months which is good.

But if I move over there, when I get settled and things, I may join up. Be a good way to meet people and stuff.

[sesroadcrashrescue]

hay VR im from kapunda and we could do with the help sing out if you want anything on kapunda il do my best to get the information to you

cheers 

[vr_driver]

Hey mate, anything you can think of that I should/need to know. How many people? Rotating roster? Everyone having a pager? Friendly, or a tight bunch?  Rough age of everyone. How many vehicles, jobs per year, types etc... I don't know! HA HA I'm just running of junk.
Seriously, whatever.
I was just interested. I've applied for a job over there, and I've got an interview. So out of hours, I may be available. Who knows at this stage. We are probably talking 2 months at least.

[sesroadcrashrescue]

i sent you a msg but we have a small group not as busy as we could be but we do have our days when we are flat out. our day crew during the week is manly ladies who run there own business or stay at home mums we have a few retired members of the public as members i cant give you an average age as i dont know.

we have the two trucks and one 4wd both trucks are Izuzu on a 500 the other a 550 and the 4wd is a landcruiser less then two years old.

just moved into our new station we are now standalone instead of co located with CFS now we are a close bunch of people but once you get to know us and vice a versa you slid in like you have been there for years we are lucky enough to have an area that is in three regions we are at the bottom of north region and our area overlaps in to central region as well as overlapping in to east region well as i have said sing out if you want anything         

[24pumper]

vr_driver,

While you are from the SES over East dont discount joining a CFS brigade if it suits you, depending on where you end up living. Are you living in Kapunda or commuting from the barossa or adelaide? As there are some busy CFS rescue stations up that way, like Nuri, Dalkieth, Virginia etc. Good luck with your move to SA.
24P

[Crownie24]

If you join Nuri or Dalkeith don't expect to get anytime to yourself they'll average 1 call a day minimum.....I mean that in a good way...

[sesroadcrashrescue]

hay crownie24 how many days in a year mate there is more then 181 and 313 is a lot closer yes they are busy but only a small portion are real jobs for dalkeith and only a small portion are va related for nuri 

[chook]

Now Now play nice
Don't want to scare anyone away with inter service rivalry do we
Correct me if I'm wrong Steve but Pakenham would be one of the busiest stations in Victoria(I seem to remember that argument).
Lots of high speed stuff as well, very nice part of Melbourne but.
So I'm not sure if any single unit/brigade in SA would compare. And we are not talking fender benders boys & girls.
Victoria seems to be the home of crazy drivers, so they get lots of practice!
Any way as I said I might see you around if you get over this way.
cheers

[Crownie24]

hay crownie24 how many days in a year mate there is more then 181 and 313 is a lot closer yes they are busy but only a small portion are real jobs for dalkeith and only a small portion are va related for nuri 

No need to get technical. What I meant was incidents and brigade events, the sudden lack of things to do might cause some culture shock. If you join nuri or dalkeith you will have plenty to do VA related and Non-VA related....

[chook]

Wouldn't be the number of jobs that would worry me - it would be the clown pants & braces
Jokin of course

[Crownie24]

  Go rescue a tree.....joking

[chook]

We run out of trees
Really sad as its getting too quiet - had a MVA, knock over an irrigation fitting and took off!
Life is getting very boring - might have to take back all the stuff I've said about you guys and join CFS so I can put out bonfires too!
Cheers Crownie
 

[RescueHazmat]

Do more building fires than bonfires..

[chook]

Not up here

[Alan (Big Al)]

I think i read somewhere once that frankston ses gets about 300-400 va related jobs p/year would that be right??

[chook]

Yep I have heard that too. There is about 4 or 5 units around the the out skirts of Melbourne that do over 300 MVA's a year. Frankston is definitely one, Dandenong CFA (one of the few CFA rescue units around )is another, Pakenham is also a busy unit.
There are also some rural units along the Hume & Calder Hwy's that get busy.
Sadly Frankston is on the way to Phillip Island Hastings/ Western Port & Sale.
Which means a lot of traffic(makes our Sturt Hwy look quiet), a beautiful part of the country(ex Victorian ).
cheers

[vr_driver]

Oh boy, I didn't realise how busy this forum is!

Yeah, Paky is a busy unit. It has slowed down a little recently with the nearest responder thing coming in to play.

But, we are a busy semi-rural/metro unit.

From what I understand these are/were the top rescue units in Vic exluding metro MFB.
In no particular order: Dandenong CFA, Frankston SES, Knox SES and Pakenham SES/Nar Nar Goon CFA.
Frangers get's a lots of jobs. I don't know exact details of other units.

Now my understanding is that Dandenong CFA is the busiest. But I can't confirm this, but it'll be due to staffed turnout times.

We were getting around 100 RARs each year. with about 60-70% cut out rate. I'm one of the regular ones available to turnout too, so I've seen my fair share of nasties. Many of the crash out this way are single vehicles into trees, power poles etc...  or rollovers.  The trouble is people come out from the city, fall asleep and crash, or drink too much.


The reason I'd probably join the SES of CFS, is familiarity. You naturally go to what you know.
As far as fires? Put the wet stuff on the red stuff. Nah, I'm not a firey. Too many factors I can't control. I've got a lot of respect for firemen. I love a log fire, but when a fire's out of control... I won't be there! Too dangerous for me!

[vr_driver]

There are also some rural units along the Hume & Calder Hwy's that get busy.

Yes, that would be Sunbury.

Sadly Frankston is on the way to Phillip Island Hastings/ Western Port & Sale.

No, that's Pakenham. Frankston is on the bay, South of Melbourne. It's about 40mins from Paky. 

[chook]

Sorry geographically embarrassed
Knew it was down that way somewhere was over that way last year & one of our plants is at Chelsea (big milk plant).
And when we came back from near Hastings we had to go through Frankston to get to the airport due to that big tunnel fire you guys had last year.
You should explain that Dandy CFA is a full time station & Narnar Goon is a combined SES/CFA team(can't remember who they were teamed with though).
Anyway I knew you guys were busy (I remember the discussion on Tech Rescue )
Anyway cheers mate glad things have quieten down a bit.
cheers

[sesroadcrashrescue]

the most interesting thing we have had in the last few weeks was a car fire not sure why we were called but we were it was a nice layland P76 belonged to one of the MFS guys here