About the SES

The State Emergency Service is an emergency and rescue service dedicated to assisting the community. It is made up almost entirely of volunteers, with 232 Units located throughout New South Wales. The Units comprise of more than 10,000 volunteer members, who are easily identified by their distinctive orange overalls.

While our major responsibilities are for flood and storm operations, the SES also provides the majority of general rescue effort in the rural parts of the state. This includes road accident rescue, vertical 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 SES also assists other emergency services when they are performing major operations. These services include the NSW Police Service, the NSW Rural Fire Service, the NSW Fire Brigade and the Ambulance Service of NSW.