By Dongyun Kwon
The Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES) is turning 50 on 5 March.
The SES Healesville Unit is one of the first units that had been established before the Civil Defence Organisation changed to VICSES.
In 1950, the emergency service was first established as a volunteer-based Civil Defence Organisation which could quickly be activated in the event of war.
The Healesville Unit was established in 1968, as part of Civil Defence.
In 1975, the Civil Defence Organisation was renamed to conform with other Australian states, and the VICSES was born.
Since then, VICSES has grown to include over 5000 volunteers and more than 350 staff.
Geoff Wilkinson, the longest-serving member of the Healesville Unit, has served the unit for 45 years.
Mr Wilkinson was the unit controller in 1991 when the unit moved to the current premises at 20 Argoon Road, Healesville.
He said the unit site was moved twice after he joined the unit.
“The first office that I went to was under the Healesville Shire’s office on the main street,” Mr Wilkinson said.
“The second one was down near the (Healesville Railway) Station.”
The current unit controller, Karen Picone, started working for the local SES unit in 2001 after she moved to Healesville, originally signing up to engage in fund-raise work.
“Originally, my husband joined the unit, and then I joined to do fundraising, and then I became involved in finance, (after that,) I became a deputy controller,” she said.
“I was controller for almost 10 years and stepped away (from the position) in 2015.
“I was still in the SES but only doing major emergencies.”
She stepped back into the role of unit controller in May last year when there were only eight members left in the Healesville Unit.
Ms Picone and the whole Healesville crew worked together to revive the unit, and the unit has recruited 17 more members so far.
The VICSES has always been central to rescuing people in danger across the state, and the volunteers operate from 154 units across the state, in addition to 16 permanently staffed offices in regional and metro locations.
As for everyone else in the community, Black Saturday bushfires were a difficult time for the Healesville SES Unit as well.
Ms Picone said everyone pulled together to do what needed to be done during the Black Saturday bushfires.
“Geoff and one more unit member saved a woman from the Marysville fire (where) the ambulance couldn’t go through,” she said.
“They got her in Narbethong and brought her down, who was very badly burnt.
“I tried to reassure a lot of people in the community, and afterwards I got told that my presence was reassuring them.”
