SES Operations
2007 stands out as the busiest and most demanding year in Rivers Unit history, with nearly 2230 hours chalked up in operations alone. We were operational for 55 days of the year and attended 34 different operations, 2 of which were interstate taskforces. We attended 26 storm damage operations (storms damage includes flooding, hail and fallen/falling trees), 2 air searches (one in the Norfolk Island area and one in Victoria), 1 major land search, and provided support to bushfire fighting operations on 4 separate occasions.

Not bad for a bunch of volunteers!

Notable Operations
- The year opened with a storm damage operation continuing on New Year’s Day after a severe hail storm hit south Tuggeranong the night before.

- At the end of February, another major storm hit Canberra city, significantly damaging city buildings and many buildings at the Australian National University (ANU) campus. The emergency response to this event lasted for a solid 48 hours, with crews working around the clock.

- The next significant SES operation happened in June, when the Hunter Valley/ Newcastle/ New South Wales (NSW) Central Coast area was slammed by a major storm that caused massive flooding and generated hundreds of storm damage jobs. The storm hit on the afternoon/evening of 8th June. The ACT had its first task force on the road to the Hunter Valley at first light the next morning. In total the ACT ended up sending 5 rotations to the devastated area of NSW and went for 12 days.

- In September, the ACTSES assisted the Australian Federal Police (AFP) – ACT Policing in the search for a missing man in some very rugged, harsh terrain high in the Brindabella Mountains. Teams searched for 6 days, but the man was not located.

- In December, a severe storm damaged a large area of Blacktown (approx 40km west of the Sydney CBD), leading to approximately 5000 requests for assistance being passed to the NSW State Emergency Service. The ACT sent a taskforce to the area to assist.

Other Significant Events
- The ACT Emergency Services Authority (ESA) to which the ACTSES belongs, was renamed to the ACT Emergency Services Agency (still called ESA), got a new Commissioner and was restructured, which led to a lot of upheaval in the organisation. Along with each of the other three emergency combat agencies (Fire, Ambulance, Rural Fire), the ACTSES got a new Chief Officer, with the ‘old’ Chief Officer, now being put in to the position of Deputy Chief Officer.

- Out of the blue, and without any apparent SES consultation, ESA got rid of ACTSES on-board Mobile Data Terminals (MDT), and did NOT replace them with anything. We not only used the MDT to electronically receive all of our jobs, we were able to electronically tell our Communication Centre our crew status without tying up the verbal radio communications. The MDT provided us with GPS/ mapping information, and allowed ESA to track our vehicle location on a map. We miss the MDT at Rivers!

Well, that is 2007 in just about a nutshell.