SESVA Committee Members

Dave has been a volunteer member holding various positions within the Rockingham Kwinana Unit after joining in 1984, his currently position in the unit is Rescue Manager.  Dave was one of the original WAVES committee members and served on the Association for many years and rejoined the Association last April after a short break.  Dave has  been appointed Deputy Unit Manager Operations for Rockingham Kwinana unit.

John has been a volunteer member of the SES for 30 years and originally joined the Wanneroo SES unit. John held a number of positions in the Wanneroo unit including six years as Local Manager.  In recent years John has focused his service to the SES Volunteer Association. John was the inaugural Association President and then held the position of Vice President.  As Treasurer John has the responsibly of managing the Associations finances and as Editor he produces the Associations publications which include the journal, dairy and calendar.  John is also is a member of the FESA Board and sits on a number of Committees including Finance.

Colleen has been a member of the Kalgoorlie-Boulder SES unit for 11 years.  Within 12 months of joining the unit Colleen was elected to Training Manager which she held for five years, stepping down to have a baby.  Colleen continued her SES activities behind the scenes keeping up with training to expand her skills and qualifications to provide further training for both Kalgoorlie-Boulder and Esperance members.  Colleen’s major achievement is the development of the Goldfields SES Challenge which she has managed for the last four years.  Colleen has held many positions in the local SES unit including Acting Manager and Acting Deputy Manager.

Jan joined the SES in 1998, serving with the Bayswater Unit for 18 months before transferring to Murray SES unit. During her time at Murray SES, she served seven years as the Training Manager.  Later transferring to the Waroona SES unit, Jan served as the Training Manager for two years, before being appointed to the Local Manager position.  Jan has qualifications as a Trainer Assessor in Communications, Land Search and Operations Team. She has extensive experience attending callouts for both Storm Damage and Land Search as the Operations Officer, and also as Base radio Operator.  Jan nominated as a SESVA Regional Representative, as she wanted to give back to the SES volunteers.   “Over years of service, SES Volunteers have not only offered me friendship, but they have gone out of their way to help me in any way they could”.  “They have always been there for me, and now I want to be there for them, assisting in any way I can.”

Deb Hutchinson has been a member of the SES for nearly 25 years. Deb first started with Belmont local unit, in Operations and communications.  Deb then moved to Swan Unit, where she did a bit of everything, search, storm damage, operations and communications and welfare officer. Deb then joined Logistic support at Belmont which later renamed the Regional Operations Support Section which she was Deputy Manager now Acting Manger.  Deb has five children, which, two of them are within the emergency services.

Craig joined the WASES in Morawa in January of 1999 and had a very wet introduction when Morawa, Moora and most of the communities in between flooded not once but twice in a couple of months. Craig very quickly became Unit Manager and served in that capacity for 12 yrs. Craig is currently the Operations/Rescue Section Leader at Rockingham/Kwinana SES.
Training has always been a passion of Craig and he is a Senior Trainer/Assessor in several areas and has been involved in up to 80% of the training occurring in the Midwest Gascoyne over the last 14 years. He has even been lucky enough to travel to Christmas and Cocas Islands twice to train Emergency Service Volunteers in  those Territories.
Craig has represented WASES in the Australasian Road Rescue Organisation Challenge in 2001, 2002 and 2006 and in the World Rescue challenge in 2005. Craig was a member of the WASES Volunteer Consultative Committee for 8 years and was previously a representative on this committee for 6 years. Although having to relocate to Waikiki because of family health issues Craig remains passionate about the Midwest/Gascoyne.

Jan originally joined Bushfire Service after the Ash Wednesday fires in 1983, but when she moved to Moora was told that she was a FEMALE and that Females don’t fight fires they stay home and make the tea and scones. Jan joined SES in 1992 after her daughter joined and it became apparent that a chaperone was needed since there were 3-4 girls under the age of 18 in the unit and she has  been there ever since.  Jan has been involved in many operations in the last t 14 years including lighting the airstrip for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.  Jan was appointed Deputy Manager/ Finance officer in 1999 after the floods and has been Local Manager since 2008 (Still Finance Officer).