NSW Police have conducted a large-scale emergency exercise across 18 local government areas in the Murray and Riverina regions involving more than 50 staff from local emergency service organisations.
Joined by NSW Ambulance, Fire and Rescue NSW, Salvation Army Emergency Services, NSW State Emergency Service, the Volunteer Rescue Association, NSW Rural Fire Service and NSW Public Health, the Police headed the exercise which included a missing helicopter, stranded minibus and a vehicle in a dam.
District Commander of Riverina Police, Superintendent Bob Noble said the exercise provided a great opportunity for emergency services to work together.
Supt Noble said the exercise had been designed to give local emergency service organisations the opportunity to hone their skills in a controlled environment with a focus on navigation, search and rescue operations and complex operational scenarios.
“We need to make sure that when it comes to a real-life scenario, our local emergency services have the ability to work together and get the job done,” Supt Noble said.
“The series of scenarios we used across the weekend gave us the opportunity to rehearse things that could happen in real life, like a helicopter going down in one of our forests or a vehicle going into a dam,” he said.
“Across the two days our volunteer rescue organisations and local emergency services proved they have the skill-set and knowledge to work together and ultimately save lives.”
Supt Nobel said that an after action review of the exercise would be conducted in the coming months.
