Toowoomba SES Group volunteers work overtime during 2022 flood event

A fallen tree on Thursday afternoon kicked off a massive weekend for Toowoomba SES Group volunteers, with close to 400 calls for help made during a weekend of wild weather.

A Thursday evening call-out for a downed tree across a road kicked off a mammoth 96 hours for Toowoomba’s SES volunteers.

Since the start of the massive rain event that caused flash flooding and road closures throughout Toowoomba and beyond, the SES received 389 calls for help, with a majority coming on Friday when more than 200 were received.

Brian Cook and Frank Devlin were part of the first crew to respond to the job at Flagstone Creek Road, and on Monday morning they were back on deck at Toowoomba SES Group headquarters.

The pair, which boasts some 74 years of SES experience between them, described the weekend as “hectic”.

“We’ve been going since Thursday afternoon from 8am through to about 10pm,” Mr Devlin, the Toowoomba group leader, said.

“We were down to 34 outstanding jobs on Monday morning, which is an outstanding effort.

“Most of the members have got day jobs so they’re back at work after spending the weekend filling sandbags and responding to calls so we were down to one team yesterday.”

Mr Devlin said 33 volunteers were on deck in Toowoomba on Saturday and Sunday, as well as Warwick SES Group volunteers, the Rural Fire Service and Emergency Services Cadets to help share the workload.

Without the extra help, Mr Devlin said the Toowoomba SES crews wouldn’t have been able to tackle as many jobs as they did.

“They all did a great job, it freed up our volunteers to do our job, we probably got through a hundred jobs in one day,” he said.

“The cadets were fantastic filling up sandbags, we thought they might grumble being out in the rain with a shovel in hand but they loved it, and that meant our crews could be out on the road.

“There were thousands of sandbags filled by hand in teams of two, and that’s one of the worst jobs we’ve got and they loved it.”

Working primarily as the group’s lead of field operations, Mr Cook said this was the first major event to use the group’s operations centre at the new Toowoomba Group SES headquarters, which was built in 2020.

“The operations centre is the nerve centre of the SES, and that meant we had to set it up for the first time, which added to the job we had to do on Friday,” he said.

“An operations centre needs to be focused on control, operations, logistics and planning, and those four functional areas needed to fit in that room.

Mr Devlin praised the efforts of all the people involved in the emergency response.

“It was an exceptional effort from all volunteers, especially those that gave up their weekend,” he said.

SES experience a benefit

At just 24 years of age, Steve Smith is one of the younger volunteers with Toowoomba SES Group, but he is hopeful the experience will lead to a career with the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services.

Mr Smith started to volunteer with the SES in 2019, and was involved in assisting residents facing bushfire just months later.

The experience he has gained working with other agencies in a variety of scenarios will hopefully put him in good stead for a role as a retained firefighter.

“That was a driving force for me wanting to join the SES,” he said.

“Having the chance to work with a lot of different people with extensive knowledge and experience has really helped me, and I’ve learnt a lot from not just the job but also what they’ve taught me.

“A big part of what we do is assess the situation and take what we’ve learnt in classroom settings and apply them to what’s going on, which means we have to adapt and manage as best we can.”

Mr Smith said he had been busy throughout the weekend helping Toowoomba residents impacted by storm and rain damage.

“A lot of people when you get there or when they call are under stress, they don’t know what to do and they need help,” he said.

“Just being there and turning up makes a difference and it’s comforting.

“It also means a lot to me to be able to help people in the community that are going through a tough time.

A qualified height safety field operative, Mr Smith said he worked as a traffic control operator when he wasn’t in the orange uniform.

Recruits get taste of action

Some of Toowoomba SES Group’s newest recruits got a taste of the action after this weekend’s flood event.

Rob Lansbury and John Peterson (below) volunteered for the SES about 12 months ago, while Andrew Shepherd became a member in June last year.

All three were kept busy with calls for help over the weekend.

“After months of training it was exciting to put it all to use,” Mr Peterson said.

“It does give you a buzz, and knowing that you’re helping people in need is very pleasing.

“People are generally appreciative.”

Mr Lansbury, who works a day job with Telstra, said the camaraderie of the SES was what drew him to volunteer his time.

“You may not know someone but once you’ve got the uniform on, you know that everyone else has a similar outlook and is there to help out,” he said.

“The weekend was a mix of everything from roof work and repairs to filling sandbags, I was just happy to do whatever was asked of me.”

For Mr Shepherd his weekend began at 8.45am on Friday, and he was still going on Monday.

“It was good to finally put what I’ve learnt into action,” he said.

“Not only that, we are helping the community which is why I joined in the first place.”

With the clean-up effort continuing in Toowoomba, Mr Peterson urged people to learn from this flood event.

“It only takes a moment to prepare for storms to minimise the risk of damage to your home,” he said.

“Simple things like cleaning out gutters can make a huge difference when it comes to massive rain events like we saw this weekend.”

Ingenuity during crisis

With Toowoomba SES Group fielding nearly 400 calls for assistance across a weekend of wild weather, crews did their best to attend all jobs as soon as possible.

However, with volunteers prioritising jobs in order of need, it meant some crews got to homes a little later than they would have liked.

That opened the door for some creative temporary solutions for residents facing flash flooding amid a deluge of rain.

Toowoomba SES Group member Pete Polkinghorne said he and a crew arrived at a Kearneys Spring address to find an engineering way to disperse water.

“A woman and her five month old baby had called for help in a panic, and by the time we had arrived her partner and his father had built a dam out of material they had around the house,” he said.

“That mitigated the problem until we arrived and could assist further.

“I took one look at it and thought this guy should be in the SES.”

Mr Polkinghorne said the group received another call which demonstrated how humour could help alleviate a dramatic situation.

“A woman said she had water coming from a downlight and was draining into the toilet, and she said he couldn’t go to the toilet without having a shower,” he said.

Originally published as Toowoomba SES Group volunteers work overtime during 2022 flood event