The New South Wales State Emergency Service is an emergency and rescue

Rescue

Rescue refers to responsive operations that usually involve the saving of life, or prevention of injury during an incident or dangerous situation....

 service dedicated to assisting the community. It is made up almost entirely of volunteers, with 228 units located throughout New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

. The units are composed of some 10,000 volunteer members, who are easily identified by their distinctive orange overalls. The SES was established after the devastating Hunter Valley floods of 1955

Hunter Valley floods of 1955

The Hunter Valley Floods of February 1955 was a major flood on the Hunter River in New South Wales, Australia...

 by the NSW State Government.

While the major responsibilities of the NSW SES are for flood

Flood

A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...

, tsunami

Tsunami

A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...

 and storm

Storm

A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather...

 operations, it also provides the majority of general rescue effort in the rural parts of the state. This includes road crash 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 NSW SES also assists other emergency services when they are performing major operations. These services include the New South Wales Police Force, the NSW Rural Fire Service, the New South Wales Fire Brigades

New South Wales Fire Brigades

Fire and Rescue NSW, an agency of the Government of New South Wales, Australia, is responsible for firefighting, rescue and hazmat services in the major cities, metropolitan areas and towns across rural and regional New South Wales...

 and the Ambulance Service of New South Wales

Ambulance Service of New South Wales

The Ambulance Service of New South Wales , an agency of the Department of Health of the New South Wales Government, is the main provider of pre-hospital emergency care and ambulance services in the state of New South Wales, Australia....

.

Organisational structure

The State Headquarters of the SES is located in Wollongong, with 17 region headquarters located across the state. Region boundaries are generally based on river catchments, reflecting that floods are a major part of their work. The boundaries for the SES's 228 units are based on local government boundaries.

SES volunteer units are managed by Unit Controllers. Where there is more than one unit in a local government area, or a number of units in close concentration or a single, large and busy unit, a Local Controller is appointed to oversee operations on a larger scale than at the indivudual unit but smaller scale than at the Regional Headquarters. Region offices are managed by a Region Controller. Offices also have a Deputy Region Controller, Learning and Development Officer, Business Services Manager and Administration Officer. Volunteers may also be attached to a region office.

The 17 regions are: Sydney Northern, Sydney Southern, Sydney Western, Illawarra South Coast, Hunter, Oxley, Clarence Nambucca, Richmond Tweed, Namoi, North West, Far West, Murray, Murrumbidgee, Central West, Southern Highlands, Lachlan, Macquarie.

The head of the SES is Commissioner Murray Kear AFSM

Australian Fire Service Medal

The Australian Fire Service Medal is awarded for distinguished service by a member of an Australian fire service.The AFSM was introduced in 1988, and replaced the Imperial awards of the Queen's Fire Service Medal for Gallantry and the Queen's Fire Service Medal for Distinguished Service...

.
At a state level, Directors are responsible for key functional areas (Logistics, Operations, Human Services, Information Technology and Emergency Risk Management). All these positions are based at SES State Headquarters in Wollongong.

Funding and support

While the SES is a state-wide recognized emergency service and receives from the state government, primarily individual units receive funding from their local councils and from donations made by members of the public.