New South Wales State Emergency Service

Office of the NSW State Emergency Service

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Agency overview
Formed	1955
Preceding agencies	State Emergency Services (April 1955 – September 1955) Civil Defence (September 1955 – 1989)
Type	Public Service Executive Agency
Jurisdiction	New South Wales
Headquarters	93–99 Burelli Street, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
Employees	333 FTE (2021) Volunteers = 11,930 (2023)
Annual budget	A$405 million (2021)
Minister responsible	Minister for Emergency Services
Agency executives	Carlene York APM, Commissioner Daniel Austin, Deputy Commissioner, Operations Damien Johnston, Deputy Commissioner, Corporate Services
Parent agency	Department of Communities and Justice
Key documents	State Emergency Service Act, 1989 (NSW) STATE EMERGENCY AND RESCUE MANAGEMENT ACT 1989
Website	ses.nsw.gov.au

The New South Wales State Emergency Service (NSW SES), an agency of the Government of New South Wales, is an emergency and rescue service dedicated to assisting the community in times of natural and man-made disasters. The NSW SES is made up almost entirely of volunteer members, numbering over 10,214 as of July 2021. Members are easily identified by their distinctive orange overalls.

From 1955 up until the 1970s the NSW SES was previously named the Civil Defence Service and is still in use up until today.

The agency is led by its Commissioner who reports to the Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience.

Leadership

The current acting Commissioner of the NSW SES is Debbie Platz pending recruitment of a new Commissioner following the retirement of Commissioner Carlene York on 3 May 2024. The Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience, is responsible to the NSW parliament for the emergency services portfolio which includes NSW SES.

Prior to 1989 the NSW SES reported through a Pro-Director to the Commissioner of Police

NSW SES Directors General and Commissioners (including acting appointments)

Name	Title	Term Start	Term End	Postnominals	Comments	Notes
Major General Brian 'Hori' Howard	Director General	Late 1989	27 August 2001	AO, ESM, MC
Brigadier Philip McNamara	Director General	27 August 2001	September 2008	CSC, ESM
Murray Kear	Director General / Commissioner	September 2008	7 November 2013	AFSM	Officially resigned 12 June 2014
Jim Smith	Acting Commissioner	7 November 2013	5 January 2015	AFSM	Fire and Rescue NSW Deputy Commissioner
Adam Dent	Commissioner	5 January 2015	30 January 2016
Greg Newton	Acting Commissioner	30 January 2016	27 February 2017		NSW SES Deputy Commissioner
Mark Smethurst	Commissioner	27 February 2017	8 March 2019	DSC, AM
Kyle Stewart	Acting Commissioner	8 March 2019	30 October 2019	APM	NSW Police Force Assistant Commissioner
Carlene York	Commissioner	30 October 2019	3 May 2024	APM	Previously NSW Police Force Assistant Commissioner, Commander of Human Resources.

Emergency support

SES volunteers removing debris from Lake Albert, in 2010

The major responsibilities of the NSW SES are for flood (including Flood Rescue), tsunami and storm operations. The NSW SES also provides the majority of General Land Rescue effort in the rural parts of the state. This includes road crash rescue, vertical rescue, general rescue, bush search and rescue, evidence searches (both metropolitan and rural) and other forms of specialist rescue that may be required due to local threats. The Service's trained rescuers also support the full-time emergency services during major disasters.

The NSW SES also assist other emergency services when they are performing major operations. These services include the New South Wales Police Force, NSW Rural Fire Service, Fire and Rescue NSW and New South Wales Ambulance.

During the 17/18 Financial Year, NSW SES Personnel answered 81,197 calls at the State Operations Centre, including 36,169 calls to the Flood/Storm assistance line (132 500) and its volunteers responded to 18,040 Requests for Assistance (RFAs).

Organisational Structure

State Level

The State Headquarters (SHQ) of the NSW SES is located in Burelli Street, Wollongong.

At a state level, Directors are responsible for key functional areas (Finance, Assets & Business Services / Information & Communications Technology / Operational Response / Organisational Performance & Engagement / People & Development / Planning & Preparedness / Training) each Director is appointed to the rank of Assistant Commissioner. All these positions are based at NSW SES State Headquarters in Wollongong.

With 5 zones located across the state, Zone boundaries are generally based on river catchments, reflecting that floods are a major part of their work. The boundaries for the NSW SES's 240+ units are based broadly on local government boundaries, each unit is grouped with 2-7 other units to form a cluster.

Zone Level

As part of the Organisational Restructure project, on 2 October 2018, Regions were replaced with Zones. The previous 17 Regions had been based on river catchment areas, inline with the NSW SES responsibility to manage flood events, however an analysis of the demands placed upon the service indicates that a more effective way to organise Units would be based around areas which both reflected historic trends in terms of affected areas, and the distribution of the population across the state.

This resulted in the formation of 5 Zones.

Zone offices are managed by a Zone Controller and the Zone Business Support Services Manager, together form the Zone Management Team. Each Zone office could house a number of different staff roles including Zone Volunteer Communications & Engagement Officer, Zone Capability Officer, Zone Training & Delivery Officer, Zone Training Adviser, Zone Operational Readiness Officer, Financial Services Officer, Administrative Support Officer, additionally Zone offices can also accommodate some state wide staff roles, traditionally located at the state headquarters, these positions include, Coordinator Exercise Planning & Design, Planning & Research Officer, Safety, Health & Wellbeing Officer, Manager Hazard Planning, Coordinator Community Capability, Manager Capability & Resource Planning.

Zones may also have a number of volunteer capability units to support the Zone.

Cluster Level

Dependent on factors such local operational demands, local Unit sizes, etc. Units can be grouped into Clusters. A cluster may contain 2-7 Units.

NSW SES Clusters are managed by a Local Commander. Local Commanders oversee operations at a scale between localised events which can be managed at a Unit Level, and larger scale events which require management at a Zone Level.

Unit Level

There are more than 240 SES Units forming the NSW SES. Most are based on former local government boundaries, although the NSW SES now also allows for the formation of Units which are not bound to geographic boundaries, such as the NSW SES Bush Search and Rescue Unit.

NSW SES Units are completely staffed by volunteers managed by Unit Commanders.

Zone Level

Old Regions vs New Zones

Prior to 2018		2018 to 2022		From 2022
Region Name	Region Code	Zone Name	Zone Code	Zone Name	Zone Code
Sydney Northern Region	SNR	Metro Zone	MTZ	Metro Zone	MTZ
Sydney Southern Region	SSR
Sydney Western Region	SWR
Central West Region	CWR	Western Zone	WTZ	Western Zone	WTZ
Far West Region	FWR
Macquarie Region	MQR
North West Region	NWR			North Western Zone	NWZ
Namoi Region	NMR
Lachlan Region	LAR	Southern Zone	SHZ	Southern Zone	SHZ
Murray Region	MYR
Murrumbidgee Region	MER
Hunter Region	HUR	Northern Zone	NHZ	Northern Zone	NHZ
Mid North Coast Region	MNR
Clarence-Numbucca Region	CNR			North Eastern Zone	NEZ
Richmond-Tweed Region	RTR
Southern Highlands Region	SHR	South East Zone	SEZ	South East Zone	SEZ
Illawarra South Coast Region	ISR

2022 Restructure

In 2022 Commissioner York announced changes to the structure of the NSW SES. This included the creation of two additional zones, splitting the Northern Zone and Western Zone both into two zones to provided additional support and resourcing to local communities.

State Level

There is a number of state based units outside of the zone structure. These units generally have a state wide focus or report directly to the state capability team.

State Units

Unit Name	Unit Code
Alpine Search & Rescue	ASR
Aviation Management	AMU
Bush Search & Rescue	BSR
Corporate & Spontaneous	COS
Operational Support	OSU

Fleet

• 
  Command Vehicle
• 
  General Purpose vehicle
• 
  Rescue Truck
• 
  Rescue Vehicle; 4x4
• 
  Light Storm Vehicle

Rank and Insignia

In January 2018 the NSW State Emergency Service commenced a review of the rank and insignia structure within the organisation. Between October and December 2018 all members of the NSW State Emergency Service transitioned to the new rank structure.

Honours and awards

	Emergency Service Medal (ESM)
	National Emergency Medal
	National Medal
	NSW SES Commissioner's Commendation for Courage
	NSW SES Commissioner's Commendation for Service
	NSW SES Long Service Medal
	NSW SES Long Service Badge – 5 years
	NSW SES Commissioner's Unit Citation
	NSW SES Life Member

Funding and support

The NSW SES receives funding primarily from the NSW Government. Resources are often obtained through numerous grants provided by public and private entities.

See also

• State Emergency Service
• Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council

External links

• Official website