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AT ANY given time of day, countless emergency service volunteers across the Wimmera are on call.
For Stawell State Emergency Service unit members, a beeping pager can quite often mean a rescue job in the Grampians.
This type of work requires high-level training, and the Stawell crew is the most experienced rescue unit for the Grampians area.
Unit controller Alan Blight said the crew had 36 members, and of those 22 were active. “We try to have teams of about 10 people for a job,” he said.
“We also call on other units – such as Horsham – to help us get a crew together.”
Mr Blight said the crew had two utes full of rescue equipment, including various stretchers.
“The one we use mostly for rescues is a paraguard stretcher,” he said.
“In difficult terrain, we’ll generally have to carry the injured person on the stretcher, using harnesses on each end.
“We also use a mule, a single-wheel unit the stretcher mounts on to, and we can walk along with it.”
Mr Blight said volunteers needed to complete a range of training before they could respond to requests for assistance or RFAs, as they are more commonly known the emergency services sector.
“For our general day to day work in the Grampians, people need to have first aid qualification, be relatively fit, have a basic knowledge of the area, and be able to read maps, a GPS and a compass,” he said.
“We can then start to train further, in areas such as search and rescue, or map-reading.
“Map-reading is a two-day course, and search is a two-day course.
“General rescue training includes fitness, manual handling, and first aid components. That can take a little while to achieve – it's a big commitment.
“Once a person has completed that, they can then move towards higher-level training, specialising in a particular type of rescue.”
The Stawell unit has steep-angle and high-angle rescue accredited members.
“There is a a considerable amount of training and knowledge needed for steep-angle rescues, such as what weights you can lift, types of knots, and anchorage,” Mr Blight said.
“Then we move into the high-angle part. A person going from general rescue to high-angle accreditation would probably take 12 months of training.
“There is a four-day intensive assessment, with a written exam and scenarios, and lot of pre-exam reading.
“The people who go out to rescues are highly skilled; we’re lucky to have so many of them.”