Open $1.6m SES facility

NSW Minister for Emergency Services, Jihad Dib, and NSW SES Commissioner Carlene York opened the new headquarters at a ceremony on Sunday as the Auburn SES unit also marked its 40th anniversary.
The new building provides garages to house the new generation of advanced NSW SES rescue vehicles and boats, storage for rescue equipment, offices, a training room, kitchen facilities, change room facilities and a laundry.
The two-storey building has enough space to garage up to eight High Clearance Vehicles and includes a rest area for flood rescue operators, kitchen, bathroom and laundry, an operations room and a training room plus a lift for accessibility between floors.
NSW SES Commissioner Carlene York APM said the facility would have lasting benefits not just for Auburn but the entire metro zone.
“We can now house significant assets and personnel at Auburn, which means in times of flood and storm, we will be able to deploy people where they’re needed, right across the zone,” Commissioner York said.
Auburn SES has 83 members who provide valuable service to their community with capability in flood rescue, storm response, urban search and rescue, flood boats, 4WD and high clearance vehicles and incident management plus training and assessment. In the last 12 months, they have responded to 193 incidents and helped out of area with 30 members deploying across NSW.
Auburn SES unit Commander Jamie Newman said it was special to mark 40 years of service to the community with the opening of the new unit.
“We’ve come a long way in 40 years. When I started there were maybe a dozen members in a small two-bedroom cottage with a shed out the back. Now we have more than 80 members and a fantastic purpose-built facility,” Commander Newman said.