CAIRNS, QLD. — A cohort of Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES) volunteers from the state’s west has showcased their rescue capacity on the national stage, securing a bronze medal at the recent National Disaster Rescue Challenge (NDRC) held near Cairns.
Alongside emergency service agencies from six other states and territories, VICSES Ballarat Unit volunteers excelled throughout the two-day event, displaying exceptional teamwork, ingenuity and skill as they tackled a series of 8 simulated rescue scenarios designed to test the limits of their emergency response.
Held every two years, NDRC 2026 tasked volunteers with managing mock emergencies ranging from sandbag deployment to complicated rope rescues and large-scale mass casualty response in the wake of a simulated mass casualty hot air balloon crash.
Victorian volunteers’ response to the latter received particular praise at the event, after members scoured a large paddock area to locate walking wounded casualties and transported them nearer the main crash site, where they could be more easily monitored while high-priority casualties were rescued from the wreckage and subsequently triaged for care.
The crew’s resourcefulness was further highlighted during the rescue of a casualty stuck over water on a high ropes course, with volunteers accessing the patient and erecting a pulley system to safely lower the patient away from the water and to solid ground.
While friendly competition was the event’s primary focus, the NDRC also plays a vital role in building relationships and sharing knowledge between first responders from across the country, informing best practice approaches to patient care and retrieval and holistic emergency response.
VICSES Ballarat Unit has been a consistent participant in the NDRC, attending for what volunteers estimate was the unit’s seventh time at the event last weekend, having last represented Victoria in 2024 in New South Wales.
They were joined by VICSES Chief Officer Operations Alistair Drayton and other members of staff, who saw first-hand the incredible camaraderie, leadership and coordination on display across the event ahead of VICSES hosting the NDRC in 2030.
The NDRC travels to South Australia in 2028, when VICSES will look to move further up the podium after being narrowly beaten out by Queensland and New South Wales across the most recent September 12 and 13 iteration.
