Wonthaggi VICSES celebrates 50th anniversary with a free fitness event

THE Wonthaggi Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES) unit is officially marking its golden jubilee on July 14 celebrating 50 years of vital, life-saving volunteer service to the Bass Coast community.

Since its inception in 1976 the unit has stood as a resilient pillar of local safety, responding to emergencies 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This historic 50th-anniversary milestone follows broader statewide celebrations for VICSES, highlighting a half-century of dedication, evolution, and community spirit.\

The foundations of the Wonthaggi SES unit were built on adaptability and specialised rescue skills. Historical newspaper clippings from the late 1970s revealed that the founding volunteers quickly identified the unique dangers of our local coastline.

Unit members regularly practised vertical rescue techniques from treacherous cliff tops. These drills were essential for retrieving persons trapped on beaches by rapid incoming tides, setting a high standard for technical rescue capabilities from the very beginning.

As the unit moved into the 1980s, the scope of its operations expanded dramatically. Wonthaggi volunteers gained extensive experience in handling widespread community-threatening situations, particularly severe storms and flash flooding.

It was also during this era that the unit solidified its reputation for rapid, life-saving highway responses. In one notable incident, quick-thinking unit members successfully extricated an injured driver from a crumpled vehicle just moments before it caught fire. This dramatic rescue demonstrated the incredible effectiveness of the newly introduced Jaws of Life and cemented road crash rescue as a core strength of the unit.

To keep pace with growing community needs and advancing rescue technologies, the Wonthaggi SES unit underwent a major logistical relocation. The unit moved from its original, cramped site on Baillieu Street, Wonthaggi, to significantly larger, purpose-built premises at 319 White Road, Wonthaggi.

This critical transition was heavily supported by the Bass Coast Shire Council, which helped facilitate the move and provided a vital $15,000 grant to assist with re-establishing the unit at the new site.

The modern White Road facility provides volunteers with state-of-the-art infrastructure. It supports the highest level of rigorous operational training and ensures rapid response times when local residents call for help.

The high-tech base is matched by a robust fleet of rescue vehicles and specialised equipment. The unit’s assets are sustained through a combination of the state-government-funded vehicle replacement programme and unit-funded vehicles.

These locally acquired assets are purchased either through successful annual grant applications or directly via the tireless fundraising activities of the volunteers and the generous Bass Coast community.

Today, the Wonthaggi VICSES unit is equipped to handle an incredibly diverse array of emergency scenarios. Volunteers undergo continuous, intensive training to maintain accreditation across a broad spectrum of core activities including road crash rescue utilising specialized cutting and extrication tools on local arterial roads, specialised rescue including high angle vertical rescue, swift water rescue, and urban search and rescue, field operations covering chainsaw operations, land-based searches, and complex four-wheel-drive operations, severe weather response managing storm and building damage, alongside rooftop safety operations, and agency support to partner agencies including the Country Fire Authority (CFA), Victoria Police, and Ambulance Victoria.

Headlining the official July calendar will be a free fitness event at Voyage Fitness in Wonthaggi. The one-hour fitness training session event will be held from 9am on Sunday July 12 and everyone is invited.

Reflecting on 50 years of service to the local community Wonthaggi VIC SES continues to welcome new faces into its ranks. Becoming a VIC SES volunteer offers community members a unique chance to gain invaluable life skills, access nationally accredited training, and form lifelong bonds.