On the 26th of April 1955 a minute was submitted to the NSW Cabinet recommending the formal establishment of an emergency-services organisation, subsequently referred to as the State Emergency Service (SES). The minute was accepted by Cabinet on May 3rd 1955 and with these simple actions, the SES was born.

From the 1870s water brigades were established along the Hawkesbury River to the west of Sydney. These groups were community based and well supported by local councils and the government. By 1906 there were some twenty brigades, spread from the Tweed to the Hawkesbury, all performing invaluable work during times of flood.

From around 1920 until the end of World War II a long period of few floods occurred in NSW. The water brigades declined in number, a process further exacerbated by the human toll of the war. After the war a decade of increased flooding saw the brigades struggle to respond. Severe floods occurred in many parts of the state, culminating in the great floods along the Hunter River in February 1955. Flooding also occurred in the North-West and Central West regions in locations as diverse as Dubbo, Moree, Narrabri, Coonamble and Inverell, claiming 22 lives and causing enormous damage to towns, infrastructure and farms.

Following the disastrous floods of 1955 the state government set up the SES to coordinate future flood responses. The organisation was to be based on volunteer membership drawn from local residents, and was to be involved in flood warning, communications, evacuation and maintenance of essential supplies during floods. Simultaneously, in the frostiest days of the cold war, the state government also saw the need to establish a civil defence organisation, and so it was that the earliest SES had the dual tasks of flood community response and the management of civilian protection in the event of war.

Much has changed in the succeeding half century. As the cold war threat abated, the civil defence role of the SES disappeared, but SES volunteers remain as busy as ever with a wide range of emergencies for which they can be called upon, with the State Emergency Service now the most versatile and widely used rescue and public safety organisation in New South Wales.

The organisation is presently comprised of a State Headquarters in Wollongong, 17 regional offices across the state and 227 ‘Units’. The units are staffed by some 10 000 volunteers, aged from 16 to over 80, from both sexes and a very wide variety of backgrounds.

The primary roles of the SES are:

• Floods (including tsunamis) – including warning, evacuation, rescue and providing essential supplies to people isolated by floodwater
• Storms – including securing and covering damaged roofs, removing fallen trees and branches from property and rescuing trapped people 

In addition the SES:

• Rescues people from vehicle accidents, cliffs and other situations (this is almost exclusively in rural areas of NSW)
• Assists other agencies in the management of disasters such as bushfires, earthquakes, landslides and technological disasters
• Helps the police with searches for lost people or evidence

SES volunteers are easily recognised by their orange overalls with the letters ‘SES’ on their back. SES vehicles range from rescue vehicles and trailers to four wheel drives and sedans.

The SES also maintains a fleet of boats used in a wide range of tasks. During floods the boats are used for flood reconnaissance and monitoring, evacuation, rescue and resupply of isolated properties.

Other, non flood related tasks may also be undertaken. For example, the SES is often asked to search for people missing after boating or swimming accidents, and in the bushfires of several summers ago, SES flood boats were used to evacuate residents.

A key role of the SES is to raise community awareness and preparedness relating to natural disasters. A prepared community is better able to respond to and recover from a disaster, and SES volunteers educate people to be as self-reliant as possible in a flood or storm. For children, this process is augmented by the SES mascot, Paddy Platypus and his offsider Rescue Roo, with the SES involved in events as diverse as agricultural shows, business breakfasts, school visits and street stalls.

Over the Service’s half century of existence, SES Volunteers have been a part of some of the state’s most significant natural and human disasters. During this time there have been very many notable floods, including Lismore in 1974, along the Shoalhaven and the Hawkesbury in 1978 and Kempsey in 2001.

Most infamous of all was the Nyngan flood of April 1990. As the Bogan river rose, residents, led by the heroic efforts of the SES, desperately attempted to raise levee banks. Despite over 200,000 sandbags being laid the levees were breached on the 23rd of April, inundating the town and causing its’ 2500 residents to be evacuated to Dubbo.

The two most notable storm events were the Sydney hailstorm of April 1999, the windstorm of August 2003 and the Newcastle and Central Coast floods and storms of June 2007, each of which generated in excess of 10 000 requests for assistance. In addition the SES has been involved in the Granville train disaster, the Thredbo landslide and the Newcastle earthquake – illustrating the diversity of disasters to which the SES is able to respond.

Under the present leadership of SES Director General Brigadier Philip McNamara, the SES is undergoing a period of increased growth and efficiency, enabling it to better meet the needs of the community and to bring it into the 21st century as a modern, well equipped emergency service organisation.

Two recent innovations are the establishment of SES Cadets, with a successful trial in three schools in 2008 and the extension of the program to some 30 schools in 2009. SES volunteers in communities remote from an ambulance service and emergency medical facilities have also been trained in Community First Response by the Ambulance Service, providing potentially life-saving first aid.