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Speaker 1: Northern Territory Emergency Services celebrating their fiftieth anniversary, marking five

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Speaker 1: decades of dedicated service. Since its establishment in the aftermath

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Speaker 1: of Cyclone Tracy. Now ANT Emergency Services have played a

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Speaker 1: vital role in emergency management, disaster preparedness and in response

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Speaker 1: to emergencies. They're made up of one hundred and eighty

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Speaker 1: volunteers and twenty seven staff, all with a common goal

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Speaker 1: that is well to help, to serve and protect. Now

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Speaker 1: the joining me on the line to talk a little

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Speaker 1: bit more about the situation is Northern Territory Emergency Services

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Speaker 1: Manager of Southern Command, Ian Carlton. Good morning to you, Ian.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, Good morning to your listeners.

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Speaker 1: Lovely to have you on the show this morning. Now, Ian,

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Speaker 1: can you take me back to the beginning of NTES

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Speaker 1: and the vital role that was played in Cyclone Tracy.

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Speaker 2: Yes, so, Northern Territy Emergency Service, as you said in

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Speaker 2: your introduction, came out virtually after the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy. However,

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Speaker 2: before that, nationally it was a civil defense organization had

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Speaker 2: been going for quite a number of years, and then

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Speaker 2: federally it was decided to allow states and territories to

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Speaker 2: have their own emergency services and that was in late

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Speaker 2: nineteen seventy four, and then as we experienced in Christmas

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Speaker 2: Day nineteen seventy four, the tragic event of Cyclone Tracy.

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Speaker 2: So as you say, on the early January twenty twenty five,

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory Emergency Service got right into it and responded

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Speaker 2: to supported the residents of Darwin in the response and

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Speaker 2: the recovery and evacuation of all those residents that came

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Speaker 2: out of Darwin to various parts of Australia.

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Speaker 1: So I mean talk me through. Obviously Cyclone Tracy an enormous,

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Speaker 1: well our worst, you know, our worst natural disaster arguably

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Speaker 1: you know in Australia, but certainly for us here in

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory plok us through some of the other

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Speaker 1: quite significant events where Northern Territory Emergency Services have had

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Speaker 1: to kick into gear.

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Speaker 2: Well, as you say, where we're located up north and

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Speaker 2: we're in that cyclone path area and as we know,

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Speaker 2: we get those cyclones each Year's touch wood, we haven't

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Speaker 2: had one this tropical or high risk weather season, but

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Speaker 2: look our volunteers and stuff, they've been involved in tropical

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Speaker 2: cyclones lamb in twenty fifteen, Marcus twenty eighteen, Trevor twenty nineteen,

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Speaker 2: and out of those events and other events such as

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Speaker 2: the Central Australia Barkley Region fires in twenty twenty three,

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Speaker 2: numerous flood events across the whole of the NC Big rivers,

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Speaker 2: reeds and floods, Catherine floods and all that top end

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Speaker 2: area that copped the brunt of the rain events after

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Speaker 2: the cyclones have come inland and have gone through to

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Speaker 2: tropical lows or rain depressions that cause that flooding other

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Speaker 2: events that have been involved in it. It's you join

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Speaker 2: fes as as a volunteer and you do it for

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Speaker 2: your community, but at times that community becomes bigger. Currently

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Speaker 2: we have volunteers waiting to go to the Queensland to

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Speaker 2: assist at Townsville with the floods over there. But we've

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Speaker 2: had volunteers that included our air observers in the search

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Speaker 2: for MH three seventeen twenty fourteen. We had volunteers go

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Speaker 2: across the christ Church for the earthquake response in twenty twelve.

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Speaker 1: It's incredible, I mean it is incredible when you think

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Speaker 1: the way in which our volunteers from here in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory have helped around the world and as you

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Speaker 1: said there in heading across to Townsville as well to

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Speaker 1: help out this week.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, twenty twenty two we had nearly fifty odd

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory Emergency Service volunteers, but also supported by our

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Speaker 2: colleagues Northern Territory Fire Rescue Service go across to New

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Speaker 2: South Wales for their flood support. And likewise it would

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Speaker 2: be if we had a large event here in the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory, our counterparts from into state would more more

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Speaker 2: than likely put the hands up to come up and

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Speaker 2: assist us. And it's that, as you said, what we're

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Speaker 2: doing for the community.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Do you think that that is what makes it

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Speaker 1: so special to be part of.

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Speaker 2: It? Is we live in live in an area and

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Speaker 2: there's lots of little communities within our area. You look

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Speaker 2: at Darwin, the communities up there. We've got our sporting clubs,

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Speaker 2: our school groups, multicultural groups all there. They are all

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Speaker 2: those little communities helping each other out. But at times

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Speaker 2: of need, the larger community comes in and stands together

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Speaker 2: and help each other out. And it's that camaraderie that's

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Speaker 2: the training and the skill sets that people gain from

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Speaker 2: being a volunteer and they are transferable to other areas

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Speaker 2: within Australia if they transfer to another SEES unit, even

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Speaker 2: some of the life skills that back and the skills

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Speaker 2: that they can take back to their workplace.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and tell me in terms of, you know, the

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Speaker 1: celebration or the marking of the fiftieth anniversary, what do

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Speaker 1: you hope Territory ands sort of reflect on as part

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Speaker 1: of this big milestone.

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Speaker 2: If we have a look back at our history and

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Speaker 2: where we've come from and as we've said, all the

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Speaker 2: natural hazards that we've experienced over the years and looking

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Speaker 2: at and going wow, look at what they've done, what

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Speaker 2: they've achieved, where we've gone to. I would love to

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Speaker 2: be part of that into the future and look at

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Speaker 2: joining your local Northern Territory Emergency Service unit. We've got

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Speaker 2: our website. There's the fiftieth anniversary web page. It's been

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Speaker 2: set up so those people google Northern Territory Service on

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Speaker 2: there and there's a Facebook page, our aniversary page. Get

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Speaker 2: in contact with us and look at where your units are.

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Speaker 2: There's Darwin Palmerston, Catherine Tennant, Creek, oh No and boy

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Speaker 2: Alice there's lots all over the place where they can

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Speaker 2: sort out assist the members of their community. There's no

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Speaker 2: when you do join, yep, there's no reason that you

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Speaker 2: can't stay locally, and you do not have to travel

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Speaker 2: into state or go out of area if you don't

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Speaker 2: want to. But just being able to support your community

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Speaker 2: at the time and need and learn those skills is

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Speaker 2: a great, great thing.

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Speaker 1: Oh absolutely. But then if you do want to, if

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Speaker 1: you do want to head into state and help out

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Speaker 1: as well, by the sounds of plenty of opportunities and

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Speaker 1: Ian before I let you go, how many have you got?

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Speaker 1: How many volunteers have you got heading across to help

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Speaker 1: out in Townsville.

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Speaker 2: We're looking at six leading on Sunday with a staff

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Speaker 2: member in support, and they'll be over there for and

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Speaker 2: it's nationally it's what they call a one three one rotation,

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Speaker 2: So one day travel, three days working and they could

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Speaker 2: be ten to twelve hour shifts cleaning out houses, cleaning

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Speaker 2: up debris, washing out houses, and then one day travel

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Speaker 2: back and then another crew would go across. We're looking

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Speaker 2: at at least twelve to twenty volunteers heading across in

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Speaker 2: those couple of deployments.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, you know, I think it's so important

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Speaker 1: as well that our wonderful volunteers. It's like, it's a

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Speaker 1: really good thing to be able to help out your neighbors,

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Speaker 1: isn't it in other states when they're going through a

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Speaker 1: natural disaster. We know what it's like here in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory, and to have that support, I would imagine

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Speaker 1: from volunteers from other parts of the country would be

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Speaker 1: really a really nice thing.

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Speaker 2: It is in the camaraderie that you make at Unfortunately

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Speaker 2: at an event, it stays with you make friends for years.

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Speaker 2: But on that I'd just like to thank those members

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Speaker 2: that are going, thank their families for allowing them to

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Speaker 2: take time out, thank their employers for allowing to take

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Speaker 2: time off work. They are they're taking time off work,

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Speaker 2: they're taide employment where other people in that agency where

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Speaker 2: they work now have to step up to do some

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Speaker 2: of that work. For those employers that are letting the

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Speaker 2: volunteers go, we thank you.

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Speaker 1: Oh good on you. Ian. Lovely to talk to you

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Speaker 1: this morning, mate. I really appreciate your time and thank

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Speaker 1: you for telling us more about the work, the wonderful

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Speaker 1: work that Northern Territory emergency services have done over fifty

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Speaker 1: years of service to the community.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, and thanks for the listeners.

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Speaker 1: Thank you