Volunteers and staff from Seymour State Emergency Service have been recognised for their work during the 2019-2020 bushfires.
On Saturday, March 4, 57 recipients and 80 guests from Hume Region attended a ceremony at the Performing Arts and Convention Centre in Wangaratta.
Four members of the Seymour SES unit were awarded the National Emergency Medal by Governor-General David Hurley in recognition of their sustained and significant service during the fires.
VICSES worked alongside other emergency management agencies over a total of 535 days in service during the disaster, which killed 34 people and destroyed 3500 homes.
SES unit controller Christine Welsh served both interstate and locally, completing five tours during the event.
Ms Welsh was sent to Omeo in East Gippsland over Christmas, and was then moved to Corryong in north-east Victoria on January 29.
Ms Welsh completed three tours of Corryong in total, including one all-female road rescue crew with fellow Seymour SES member Lisa James.
“A lot of the SES crew I was working with were also CFA, so they were going to fight the fires, so we focused on road rescue because that was under-resourced,” Ms Welsh said.
Groups of four or five people would rotate every five days to ensure there was ongoing road rescue support.
Many local SES members who would usually provide road rescue support had their own properties impacted by the fires.
As well as providing road rescue support, the women used their spare time to help in as many ways as they could, including sorting donations for affected families at the community centre.
“Having to evacuate Corryong again was very hard … we saw people coming in having lost everything,” Ms Welsh said.
“Going to Corryong was really confronting to see the damage firsthand and to see how much peoples’ lives are affected … It’s such an honour to be able to help and give back to the community that would do the same thing if we were in the same position,” Ms James said.
Both Ms Welsh and Ms James also went to Canberra to provide road rescue support.
“That was the first time an interstate crew was asked to come in to Canberra,” Ms Welsh said.
Despite the award recipients’ ongoing efforts and sacrifice, they were humble in their acceptance, finding the awards ceremony embarrassing.
“I don’t expect anything for it ... I would have been happy if they had mailed it to me but it’s nice for the unit, nice for the town,” Ms Welsh said.
Ms James agreed, saying the feeling of helping in someone in time of need was the reward.
“I feel like it’s not needed but it’s nice to be reminded that what we do is meaningful to people … Thanks to the other members and families that keep everything going at home so we can go away,” she said.
The 2019-2020 bushfires were declared a nationally significant emergency on December 2, 2020, which allowed VICSES staff and volunteers to be put forward for nominations for a medal or clasp.
It was a close to two-year process of creating guidelines to determine who was eligible for the awards. To qualify, SES members had to have served a minimum of five days in the fire event.