Rivers Unit is operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365/366 days a year. The thing that excites a lot of members about the SES and Rivers is that you never know what sort of emergency the next response is going to be to. It could be virtually anything!

River SES participates in a full range of ACTSES operations including:

- storm and water damage
- tree damage
- land search (both forensic and missing person)
- air search
- bushfire support
- support to the ACT Fire Brigade
- support to the ACT Ambulance Service
- support to the Australian Federal Police
- support to multi-agency emergency responses
- interstate support to various emergency combat agencies and incident types.

Notable Past Operations

Some of the notable operations that Rivers Unit has been involved in include the Canberra Hospital implosion, the Thredbo landslide, the search for the 4 missing snowboarders in Kosciuszko National Park, the Sydney hail storms, the Canberra bushfires (both 2001 and 2003), the Indonesian Embassy white powder incident, the Victorian bushfires (Dec 06), and the Newcastle/ Hunter Valley floods.


For details of incidents/ emergencies that Rivers has been involved in please visit our history and roll call sections.