Volunteering

Ambulance Victoria (AV) is looking for more recruits to join the Maldon Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). Maldon’s CERT is made up of members who provide support to the Maldon township 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Maldon and Harcourt Fire Brigade members, Maldon Community Response Team (CERT) volunteers and Ambulance Victoria paramedics came together last Friday night at the Maldon Fire Station for a two-and-a-half-hour training session. The CFA volunteers were instructed in CPR and in manual lifting techniques for moving patients safely.

Most people in town would be familiar with the huge personality and smiling face that is Amy James and see her frequently at events like Do it for Dolly, RU OK, and Women’s Health Week events ... Amy’s contributions have earned her a nomination for the NT Young Achiever Awards in the Somerville Community Service Award People’s Choice category...

After a 43-year hiatus, the 209 team of the Leitchville Fire Brigade has fired up again. Sporting shirts in the original team colours, the team entered its first competition after just six weeks of training.

Unruly youths have struck Tennant Creek’s most vulnerable again, this time a much-respected volunteer of the community. Adrian Calyun is well-known around Tennant Creek as a volunteer, teacher and youth worker, and last Friday night he was victim to theft and vandalism.

For more than a year, Tabulam has not had an SES unit. Member numbers dwindled during the covid pandemic because the SES policy at the time was that all members had to be vaccinated.

Emergency services were in high demand over the weekend with multiple fire brigades attending to two grass fires in the Baringhup/Tarrengower area, and a car accident in Maldon. The first was a grass fire in Greenhill Bridge Road on Saturday 11 March where fire burned through grass and bullrushes.

Kaniva’s Ambulance Community Officers have been recognised as winners in the 2022 Ambulance Victoria Excellence Award for their dedication and hard work in providing essential emergency services to our local community. Kaniva has 8 active Ambulance Community Officers to cover 14 shifts per week.

Lee Mead. Lap swimmers, aerobic mermaids and happy families alike are all extremely grateful to two local legends, Sally and Kerryn, who answered the call out to train as lifeguards. Both undertook a lifeguard training course last year to help overcome the shortage of staff suffered by all swimming pools last season, and which resulted in our Maldon pool having to close some days each week.

Concerned with the amount of litter adorning roadsides, a couple of locals have taken it upon themselves to help clear the rubbish and take pride in their surroundings ... Using drone footage, Esther Hume and Geoff Eldridge created a short video of their escapades which was uploaded to social media.

HM Woodhouse-Herrick. The first day of Autumn was a beautiful cool day for our day out for the Volunteers who man the Visitors Information Centre Nhill one day a month. With thanks to the Hindmarsh Shire, we filled the bus with those who were able to come along and familiarised ourselves with places such as the grand old Church at Pella out of Rainbow, the painted Silo at Albacutya ...

Firefighting volunteers are monitoring a sprinkler system set up due to the February 4 bushfire getting into peat, which means it will produce smoke for some time ... “Peat has a high carbon content and is naturally porous": Department of Health.

"We feed an average of 80 people every week but we’ve also had nights when we’ve fed more than a 100 ... What I get out of it is far more than I give. It’s not a business; it’s a sense of service and with that comes incredible nourishment”: Lindsey Sesin, Denmark Soupy.    

A deadly disease that attacks water birds, known as Avian Botulism, is suspected to have struck at Bells Swamp on the Bridgewater-Maldon Road in Neereman, 10 or so kilometres from Maldon. Bird rescue teams, including Victorian Wildlife veterinarians and volunteer regional wildlife lovers, spent the weekend searching the swamp for dead and unwell birds.

It must never happen again. February 16, marks 40 years since Ash Wednesday when 120,000ha in the heart of the SE was destroyed by fire. The inferno was fanned by 110km winds in 44C temperatures and killed 14 South Easterners, including Lucindale’s Brian Nosworthy, Peter O’Leary and Andrew Lemke.

George Grant of Neergabby has been recognised for his years of volunteer firefighting and his mentoring of other bushfire brigade volunteers with an Australian fire service medal. Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson said Mr Grant joined the Gingin West Volunteer Bush Fire Brigade in 1963, clocking up 60 years of firefighting and along the way using his knowledge to mentor those around him.

Residents who would like to provide local knowledge and support planning for future flood events are encouraged to consider becoming a volunteer flood observer. Gannawarra Shire Council, Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES) and the North Central Catchment Management Authority are seeking new flood observers, especially from residents in the Pyramid and Wandella Creek areas.

Australia’s volunteer tagging database Infofish recently became the first citizen science tagging program in the world to tag 1 million fish since its inception in 1986 ... “Community-based fish tagging has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the movement patterns and growth rates of many fish species, and the Infofish program is recognised as a world leader in this space": Mark Furner, Qld Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries.

It’s the little things that count: A plate of food for someone lonely, new in town, from the other side of the world. A volunteer giving an English lesson. Singing together. Men chatting about crafts in their former homes. Leonamedes Bowey, Leony to her many friends, and declared Centralian Citizen of the Year on Thursday, has practised the art of making people welcome to Alice Springs for 40 years ... on Australia Day politics takes a back-seat in Alice Springs.

Local people and organisations were recognised for their community service at breakfast ceremonies in towns across the Towong Shire on Australia Day ... The joint Citizens of the Year are former Corryong pharmacists, Catherine and Stewart Ross, who have had a long involvement in community affairs ... Local cafè owner, Stuart Spratt, was presented with a Special Recognition award ... Community Group of the Year award went to the supporters and committee members of the Corryong & District Memorial Hall and the RSL Hall ...