Tatura unit pulls out all the stops

Nov 15, 2022

Busy: Tatura VICSES members Gianni Gobbo, Andrew Nunn, Rebecca Gould, Margie McCarthy and Peter Nunn.

Tatura’s Victoria State Emergency Service volunteers are a small but mighty team of seven who work alongside Shepparton Search and Rescue.

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The response area — once one of the biggest in the state — is shared between VICSES and SSAR.

With SSAR situated to the west of the Goulburn River, and the Peter Ross-Edwards Causeway — Shepparton’s principal roadway — impassable for much of October, the memorandum of understanding between VICSES and SSAR became a crucial organising principle in the management of the response area.

Of the 542 requests for assistance answered by VICSES Tatura Unit volunteers during the past 12 months, 460 were during October.

This number included 149 flood-related incidents, 102 flood rescues, 53 downed trees, and 40 calls to assist other agencies, including Victoria Police (21).

To prepare for the anticipated jump in calls for help, volunteers at VICSES Tatura Unit and SSAR first set up sandbagging points throughout Mooroopna and Shepparton and, with community help, filled them.

VICSES unit controller Rebecca Gould then set about creating an effective triaging process, which was vital to managing the workload.

Triaging allows volunteer crews to understand whether callers should leave immediately — being under an evacuation order — based on the extent of inundation by floodwater, and their vulnerability to the impact of the flooding event.

Older residents, or those with disabilities or without the means to flee, are also prioritised.

Once the causeway was closed on Saturday, October 15, the VICSES Tatura Unit volunteers were managing all RFAs from Mooroopna, a town of 9000, without assistance for three days.

Though Tatura had not been affected by floodwater, the power station at Mooroopna flooded. The power to the unit — and to Tatura — failed on October 16.

The volunteer crew kept the unit open with two small generators; alternating their use as they ran out of fuel, allowing them to cool before replenishing. The council went on to secure a backup generator for the town, bringing the CFA, Ambulance Victoria, and Victoria Police depots in the town back online.