BY BILLIE DAVERN
SEYMOUR, VIC. — It wasn’t just working dogs and heavy machinery that filled Kings Park at the weekend; emergency services also had striking displays at the Seymour Alternative Farming Expo.
While kids enjoyed an insight into volunteering — steering the stationary CFA truck and riding high in the SES emergency rescue boat — emergency services volunteers and members were sharing valuable information to the public.
SES North East region community resilience co-ordinator Glenn Mercer said having a presence at events like the Seymour Expo enabled emergency services to speak to people in different circumstances than usual.
“It gets our face out there. We can talk to members of the public and families, but not in emergency situations because people often see us in emergencies,” he said.
“They can have a chat and see what we do and we can build that connection with people.”
SES, CFA and Victoria Police each had displays at the expo, which were not only dazzling, but informative.
Mr Mercer said [the] SES’s exhibit was not only about forming connections with the community, but also about education.
“We can also help (the community’s) resilience by just getting them to do one more extra thing, which might be cleaning out their gutters, preparing for a flood by downloading the local flood guide, trimming trees that are close to roofs so that if a storm comes, they don’t need to call SES,” he said.
He added that displays also supported local brigades in recruiting new members, with SES specifically having a range of roles for prospective volunteers.
“Sometimes you can have a chat to a member of the public and they ask, ‘how can I go about joining?’,” he said.
“We can use a computer there and then to sign them up as an expression of interest. You can get members out of that, and that’s often the local units.
“The Seymour unit, for example, are always after members. You can do a lot of roles, like operational, road crash rescue, storms and floods, through to community engagement.”
Emergency services had displays set up at the expo throughout the weekend and were a popular, educational attraction for those wandering the grounds of Kings Park.
