The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) North Western Zone, formed in February 2023, officially has a new home, with a new state of the art facility opened today.
Parliamentary Secretary for Emergency Services Charishma Kaliyanda and NSW SES acting Commissioner Deb Platz opened the new headquarters this morning (Thursday 3 October).
The new zone headquarters provides dedicated operational spaces for up to 60 emergency service personnel, incident management teams and dedicated flood rescue coordination and planning areas.
The new facility will ensure NSW SES staff, volunteers, as well as partner emergency service agencies who assist during flood and storm events, have the resources required to respond to future disasters.
In addition to the opening of the new facility, NSW SES also presented awards to honour sustained and distinguished service to 27 of its members, including long service awards recognise years of dedication, and also the National Emergency Medal awarded to members who served during the 2019-20 Black Summer Bushfires.
Quotes attributed to Parliamentary Secretary for Emergency Services, Charishma Kaliyanda:
I am excited to be here with you all today to officially open the new NSW SES North Western Zone Headquarters. The NSW Government is proud to support new facilities like this, which was funded as part of an $11.7 million package for the NSW SES to establish two new Zone Headquarters, including here in Tamworth. This investment in the facility highlights our commitment to supporting the NSW SES in its mission to saving lives and creating safer communities. This facility is an important addition to NSW SES's commitment to the safety and well-being of the people of regional New South Wales. It's amazing to see, what was the Workers Club being redeveloped into this modern Level 3 Incident Control Centre. The building represents not just a physical space, but a commitment to NSW SES' future.
Quotes attributed to NSW SES Acting Commissioner, Debbie Platz APM:
This new facility will ensure the NSW SES can continue to save lives and build safer communities. This new asset will ensure we can sustain great connections to not just our volunteers but also the communities we serve.
This facility has dedicated training and operational space, and even a parent's room.
I was also delighted to honour and recognise the outstanding service of many of our volunteers and staff members through long service and national emergency medal awards.
Quotes attributed to NSW SES North Western Zone Commander, Chief Superintendent Tammy Shepley:
Today is an exciting day for the North Western Zone and our local volunteers - opening a new headquarters and recognising our amazing volunteers' remarkable service.
The zone was created by the NSW SES in February 2023. It was designed to ensure the NSW SES had resources in place to build strong connections to our local units and our communities. Since that time we've been able to build our capacity locally to ensure we have the resources we need to support community engagement, volunteer growth, training and operational responses.
Units right across our zone have continued to support their communities responding to more than 1000 incidents in the last year alone - everything from floods, storms community first responder calls, general land rescues and road crash rescues.
For us to now have a state of the art facility where we can support our volunteers and community during operational periods right here in Tamworth, is an amazing leap forward.
