No hand-me-downs for local groups
THE Ipswich SES has come a long way since Arie van den Ende joined in 1975.
Ipswich
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THE Ipswich SES has come a long way since Arie van den Ende joined in 1975.
On Saturday the SES was presented with nearly $250,000 worth of new equipment, a far cry from the single hand-me-down truck the group was in possession of in 1974.
Ipswich SES local controller Mr van den Ende said the new trucks, trailers and boats would be a major benefit to the group.
"If someone had told me in 1975 that we'd be getting $250,000 of equipment in 2012 I would have just laughed," he said.
"In '75-'76 we just had an old hand-me-down truck from the council. It's a dream to get this sort of support."
The SES received donations from four Queensland credit unions, including the Queenslanders Credit Union, Queensland Professionals Credit Union, Queensland Police Credit Union and the Railways Credit Union, as well at the city council and State Government.
The credit unions and council donated $15,000 for the construction of an emergency operations trailer and an emergency-power generator trailer.
The generator will be based out of the Goodna group, while the operations trailer will be based in Ipswich.
Switchboards in the trailers were donated to the SES by a group of local electricians, who worked to install them for only the cost of a roast dinner.
The Marburg SES group will be the recipients of a new flood boat and a truck, and the Rosewood group will also receive a new boat.
Despite the presentation of the new boats, Mr van den Ende said he hoped they would never be needed.
"Hopefully they'll never have to be used for anything other than fishing trips," he said with a laugh.
Some of the equipment received an immediate workout, with members of the SES responding to emergencies caused by the continuing wet weather at the Gold Coast over the weekend.
Originally published as No hand-me-downs for local groups
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