New South Wales State Emergency Service

Office of the NSW State Emergency Service

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Agency overview
Formed	1955
Preceding agencies	State Emergency Services (April 1955 – September 1955) Civil Defence (September 1955 – 1989)
Type	Public Service Executive Agency
Jurisdiction	New South Wales
Headquarters	93–99 Burelli Street, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
Employees	468 FTE (2023) Volunteers = 10,919 (2023)
Minister responsible	Minister for Emergency Services
Agency executives	Michael Wassing, Incoming Commissioner Debbie Platz, Deputy Commissioner, Operations Damien Johnston, Deputy Commissioner, Corporate Services Daniel Austin, Deputy Commissioner, Capability & Training
Parent agency	Department of Communities and Justice
Key documents	State Emergency Service Act, 1989 (NSW) STATE EMERGENCY AND RESCUE MANAGEMENT ACT 1989
Website	ses.nsw.gov.au

The New South Wales State Emergency Service (NSW SES), an agency of the Government of New South Wales, is an emergency and rescue service dedicated to assisting the community in times of natural and man-made disasters. The NSW SES is made up almost entirely of volunteer members, numbering over 10,919 as of September 2023. Members are easily identified by their distinctive orange overalls.

From 1955 up until the 1970s the NSW SES was previously named the Civil Defence Service and is still in use up until today.

The agency is led by its Commissioner who reports to the Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience.

Leadership

The current acting Commissioner of the NSW SES is Debbie Platz, following the retirement of Commissioner Carlene York on 3 May 2024.

On 14 November 2024, Jihad Dib MP, Minister for Emergency Services, announced that Michael Wassing had been appointed as the new Commissioner of the NSW SES. Michael Wassing will take up his new role from the 2 December 2024.

The Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience, is responsible to the NSW parliament for the emergency services portfolio which includes NSW SES.

Prior to 1989 the NSW SES reported through a Pro-Director to the Commissioner of Police

NSW SES Directors General and Commissioners (including acting appointments)

Name	Title	Term Start	Term End	Postnominals	Comments	Notes
Major General Brian 'Hori' Howard	Director General	Late 1989	27 August 2001	AO, ESM, MC
Brigadier Philip McNamara	Director General	27 August 2001	September 2008	CSC, ESM
Murray Kear	Director General / Commissioner	September 2008	7 November 2013	AFSM	Officially resigned 12 June 2014
Jim Smith	Acting Commissioner	7 November 2013	5 January 2015	AFSM	Fire and Rescue NSW Deputy Commissioner
Adam Dent	Commissioner	5 January 2015	30 January 2016
Greg Newton	Acting Commissioner	30 January 2016	27 February 2017		NSW SES Deputy Commissioner
Mark Smethurst	Commissioner	27 February 2017	8 March 2019	DSC, AM
Kyle Stewart	Acting Commissioner	8 March 2019	30 October 2019	APM	NSW Police Force Assistant Commissioner
Carlene York	Commissioner	30 October 2019	3 May 2024	APM	Previously NSW Police Force Assistant Commissioner, Commander of Human Resources.
Michael Wassing	Commissioner	2 December 2024			Former Deputy Commissioner of Queensland Fire and Emergency Services

Emergency support

SES volunteers removing debris from Lake Albert, in 2010

The major responsibilities of the NSW SES are for flood (including Flood Rescue), tsunami and storm operations. The NSW SES also provides the majority of General Land Rescue effort in the rural parts of the state. This includes road crash rescue, vertical rescue, general 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. The Service's trained rescuers also support the full-time emergency services during major disasters.

The NSW SES also assist other emergency services when they are performing major operations. These services include the New South Wales Police Force, NSW Rural Fire Service, Fire and Rescue NSW and New South Wales Ambulance.

During the 22/23 Financial Year, NSW SES Personnel answered 113,722 calls at the State Operations Centre. Volunteers responded to 47,241 incidents, including 24,043 Storm damage incidents and 1,548 Flood Rescues.

Organisational Structure

State level

The State Headquarters (SHQ) of the NSW SES is located in Burelli Street, Wollongong.

At a state level, the NSW SES Commissioner leads the agency and has three deputy commissioners, who each lead a key area of the agency. Operations, Operational Capability & Training and Corporate Services.

Each deputy commissioner leads multiple directorates (Emergency Management, North & West Operations, Metro & South Operations, Operational Capability and Training, Operational Systems Program (Temporary), Flood Rescue Enhancement Program (Temporary), Information & Communications Technology, People & Development, Finance, Asset & Business Services, Elevate Program (Temporary) and Organisation Strategy, Planning & Performance).

Every directorate is led by a director, who has multiple senior managers reporting to them. Directors who lead a directorate which has direct operational responsibilities is appointed to the rank of assistant commissioner. All other directors do not hold an operational rank.

Zone level

The state is split up into seven zones (North Western, North Eastern, Northern, Metro, Western, Southern and South Eastern).

Each zone is led by a zone commander who reports to the assistant commissioner responsible for that Operational Area. Deputy zone commanders are also appointed and assigned a command area within that zone. The zone is also staffed with a range of operational and administrative support personnel, including roles such as: Operational Readiness, Volunteer Engagement, Business Services and Planning & Research. Zone staff work out of the Zone Headquarters (ZHQ).

Zones may also have capability units, whose purpose are to provide incident management and other specialised support to units. These capability units are often composed and lead by volunteers, operating directly under zone leadership.

In 2023, Commissioner Carlene York announced an investment into SES Facilities from the Government of New South Wales. As part of this investment, the SES created an additional two zones (North Western and North Eastern) in addition to its five existing zones, effectively splitting up the Northern and Western Zones into four zones.

Prior 2 October 2018, the SES was composed of 17 regions, based on river catchment areas. This was inline with the NSW SES responsibility to manage flood events, however an analysis of the demands placed upon the service indicates that a more effective way to organise units would be based around areas which both reflected historic trends in terms of affected areas, and the distribution of the population across the state. This resulted in the formation of five zones as part of the organisational restructure project.

Old Regions vs New Zones

Prior to 2018		2018 to 2022		From 2022
Region Name	Region Code	Zone Name	Zone Code	Zone Name	Zone Code
Sydney Northern Region	SNR	Metro Zone	MTZ	Metro Zone	MTZ
Sydney Southern Region	SSR
Sydney Western Region	SWR
Central West Region	CWR	Western Zone	WTZ	Western Zone	WTZ
Far West Region	FWR
Macquarie Region	MQR
North West Region	NWR			North Western Zone	NWZ
Namoi Region	NMR
Lachlan Region	LAR	Southern Zone	SHZ	Southern Zone	SHZ
Murray Region	MYR
Murrumbidgee Region	MER
Hunter Region	HUR	Northern Zone	NHZ	Northern Zone	NHZ
Mid North Coast Region	MNR
Clarence-Numbucca Region	CNR			North Eastern Zone	NEZ
Richmond-Tweed Region	RTR
Southern Highlands Region	SHR	South East Zone	SEZ	South East Zone	SEZ
Illawarra South Coast Region	ISR

Cluster Level

Dependent on factors such local operational demands, local Unit sizes, etc. Units can be grouped into Clusters. A cluster may contain 2-7 Units.

NSW SES Clusters are managed by a volunteer Local Commander. Local Commanders oversee operations at a scale between localised events which can be managed at a Unit Level, and larger scale events which require management at a Zone Level. Some Clusters may also, dependent on size and operational demands, have a Deputy Local Commander.

Each Cluster is a part of a Zone Command Area and report to one of the Deputy Zone Commanders.

Unit Level

There are 261 SES Units forming the NSW SES. Most are based on the former local government boundaries prior to the 2013-2016 council amalgamations, although the NSW SES now also allows for the formation of Units which are not bound to geographic boundaries, such as the NSW SES Bush Search and Rescue Unit.

State Units

Unit Name	Unit Code
Aviation Management	AMU
Bush Search & Rescue	BSR
Alpine Search & Rescue	ASR
Peer Support & Chaplaincy	PSU

NSW SES Units are completely staffed by volunteers managed by volunteer Unit Commanders. In the case where the unit is not part of a cluster, and it has an assigned geographical area, the Unit Commander may also act as the Local Commander.

Fleet

The bulk of SES vehicles used to be provided by the local council, as part of their contribution to the Local SES Units. More recently, however, funding from the Government of New South Wales has allowed for a standardised fleet of vehicles to be obtained for the SES. This has allowed the services to provide vehicles that are fit-for-task and reduce the average fleet age to under 20 years.

Standard Vehicle Types/Classifications

• Command Vehicle
  • Isuzu MU-X
  • Toyota Land Cruiser Prado
• General Purpose Vehicle (GPV)
  • Isuzu D-MAX
• Light Storm Vehicle (LSV)
  • Mercedes Sprinter Crew Cab, heavily modified by R.A. Bell Environmental.
• Medium Storm Vehicle (MSV)
• Light Rescue Vehicle
  • Toyota 70 series Land Cruiser
• Medium Rescue Vehicle
• Heavy Rescue Vehicle
• High Clearance Vehicle
  • Mercedes Unimog

• 
  Command Vehicle
• 
  General Purpose vehicle
• 
  Rescue Truck
• 
  Rescue Vehicle; 4x4
• 
  Light Storm Vehicle
• 
  Light Rescue Vehicle

Vehicle as a Node (VAAN)

In early 2023, the SES, working with the NSW Telco Authority and Motorola, started trialing the technology, becoming one of the first Emergency Service Agencies in New South Wales, to utilise the technology.

Vehicle as a node utilises Motorola's SmartConnect technology to provide seamless connectivity for operational communications, even when there is no Public Safety Network (PSN) coverage. When outside of coverage of the PSN, SmartConnect utilises cellular (4G) and satellite connectivity to maintain operational communications.

By August 2023, there were over 1,300 vehicles across the SES and Fire and Rescue New South Wales Fleet now utilising the technology. This provides the ability for SES crews to maintain operational communications regardless of their geographical location and surrounding topography. The Public Safety Network (PSN) only covers around 80% of the State.

High Clearance Vehicles (HCV)

In June 2024, the SES was internationally recognised for its research, development and introduction of the nation's most advanced High Clearance vehicles into the Flood Rescue space. The SES was awarded the Special Commendation Award at the Higgins and Langley Memorial Awards in the United States.

These vehicles represent a significant enhancement of the Agency's Flood Rescue capabilities. The vehicles can travel in water up-to 1.2 metres deep, keep flood rescue operators safe whilst performing rescues. The Agency's latest vehicles include advanced features such as forward-scanning SONAR, front and rear hydraulic winches and a vehicle loading crane, which can be used to load rescue boats into the vehicle.

Rank and Insignia

In January 2018 the NSW State Emergency Service commenced a review of the rank and insignia structure within the organisation. Between October and December 2018 all members of the NSW State Emergency Service transitioned to the new rank structure.

Honours and awards

	Emergency Service Medal (ESM)
	National Emergency Medal
	National Medal
	NSW SES Commissioner's Commendation for Courage
	NSW SES Commissioner's Commendation for Service
	NSW SES Long Service Medal
	NSW SES Long Service Badge – 5 years
	NSW SES Commissioner's Unit Citation
	NSW SES Life Member

Funding and support

The NSW SES receives funding primarily from the Government of New South Wales. Resources are often obtained through numerous grants provided by public and private entities.

See also

• State Emergency Service
• Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council

External links

• Official website