New South Wales State Emergency Service
The New South Wales State Emergency Service, an agency of the Government of New South Wales, is an emergency and rescue service dedicated to assisting the community in times of natural and man-made disasters. The NSW SES is made up almost entirely of volunteer members, numbering over 9,000 as of June 2018. Members are easily identified by their distinctive orange overalls.
The agency is led by its Commissioner who reports to the Minister for Emergency Services, presently David Elliott.
History
1955 - State Emergency Service Founded
Following the devastating Hunter Valley floods of 1955, which no single agency was equipped or designated to manage, the NSW State Emergency Service was founded.1989 - Renamed to NSW State Emergency Service
Following the enactment of, the New South Wales State Emergency Service was established.Leadership
The current Commissioner of the NSW SES is Carlene York who took up her appointment on 28 October 2019. The Minister for Police and Emergency Services, David Elliott, is responsible to the NSW parliament for the emergency services portfolio which includes NSW SES.Prior to 1989 the NSW SES reported through a Pro-Director to the Commissioner of Police
| Name | Title | Term Start | Term End | Postnominals | Comments | Notes |
| Major General Brian 'Hori' Howard | Director General | Late 1989 | 27 August 2001 | AO, ESM, MC | ||
| Brigadier Philip McNamara | Director General | 27 August 2001 | September 2008 | CSC, ESM | ||
| Murray Kear | Director General / Commissioner | September 2008 | 07 November 2013 | AFSM | Officially resigned 12 June 2014 | |
| Jim Smith | Acting Commissioner | 07 November 2013 | 05 January 2015 | AFSM | Fire and Rescue NSW Deputy Commissioner | |
| Adam Dent | Commissioner | 05 January 2015 | 30 January 2016 | |||
| Greg Newton | Acting Commissioner | 30 January 2016 | 27 February 2017 | NSW SES Deputy Commissioner | ||
| Mark Smethurst | Commissioner | 27 February 2017 | 08 March 2019 | DSC, AM | ||
| Kyle Stewart | Acting Commissioner | 08 March 2019 | 30 October 2019 | APM | NSW Police Force Assistant Commissioner | |
| Carlene York | Commissioner | 30 October 2019 | Incumbent | APM |
Emergency support
The major responsibilities of the NSW SES are for flood, tsunami and storm operations. The NSW SES also provides the majority of General Land Rescue effort in the rural parts of the state. This includes road crash rescue, vertical rescue, general rescue, bush search and rescue, evidence searches 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 assist other emergency services when they are performing major operations. These services include the New South Wales Police Force, the NSW Rural Fire Service, the Fire and Rescue NSW and the New South Wales Ambulance.
During the 17/18 Financial Year, NSW SES Personnel answered 81,197 calls at the State Operations Centre, including 36,169 calls to the Flood/Storm assistance line and its volunteers responded to 18,040 Requests for Assistance.
Organisational Structure
State Level
The State Headquarters of the NSW SES is located in Burelli Street, Wollongong.At a state level, Directors are responsible for key functional areas each Director is appointed to the rank of Assistant Commissioner. All these positions are based at NSW SES State Headquarters in Wollongong.
With 5 zones located across the state, Zone boundaries are generally based on river catchments, reflecting that floods are a major part of their work. The boundaries for the NSW SES's 240+ units are based broadly on local government boundaries, each unit is grouped with 2-7 other units to form a cluster.
Zone Level
As part of the Organisational Restructure project, on 2 October 2018, Regions were replaced with Zones. The previous 17 Regions had been based on river catchment areas, inline with the NSW SES responsibility to manage flood events, however an analysis of the demands placed upon the service indicates that a more effective way to organise Units would be based around areas which both reflected historic trends in terms of affected areas, and the distribution of the population across the state.This resulted in the formation of 5 Zones.
Zone offices are managed by a Zone Controller and the Zone Business Support Services Manager, together form the Zone Management Team. Each Zone office could house a number of different staff roles including Zone Volunteer Communications & Engagement Officer, Zone Capability Officer, Zone Training & Delivery Officer, Zone Training Adviser, Zone Operational Readiness Officer, Financial Services Officer, Administrative Support Officer, additionally Zone offices can also accommodate some state wide staff roles, traditionally located at the state headquarters, these positions include, Coordinator Exercise Planning & Design, Planning & Research Officer, Safety, Health & Wellbeing Officer, Manager Hazard Planning, Coordinator Community Capability, Manager Capability & Resource Planning.
Zones may also have a number of volunteer capability units to support the Zone.
Cluster Level
Dependent on factors such local operational demands, local Unit sizes, etc. Units can be grouped into Clusters. A cluster may contain 2-7 Units.NSW SES Clusters are managed by a Local Commander. Local Commanders oversee operations at a scale between localised events which can be managed at a Unit Level, and larger scale events which require management at a Zone Level.
Unit Level
There are more than 240 SES Units forming the NSW SES. Most are based on former local government boundaries, although the NSW SES now also allows for the formation of Units which are not bound to geographic boundaries, such as the NSW SES Bush Search and Rescue Unit.NSW SES Units are completely staffed by volunteers managed by Unit Commanders.
| Old Region | Region Code | New Zone | Zone Code |
| Sydney Northern Region | SNR | Metro Zone | MTZ |
| Sydney Southern Region | SSR | Metro Zone | MTZ |
| Sydney Western Region | SWR | Metro Zone | MTZ |
| Central West Region | CWR | Western Zone | WTZ |
| Far West Region | FWR | Western Zone | WTZ |
| Macquire Region | MQR | Western Zone | WTZ |
| North West Region | NWR | Western Zone | WTZ |
| Namoi Region | NMR | Western Zone | WTZ |
| Lachlan Region | LAR | Southern Zone | SHZ |
| Murry Region | MYR | Southern Zone | SHZ |
| Murrumbidgee Region | MER | Southern Zone | SHZ |
| Hunter Region | HUR | Northern Zone | NHZ |
| Clarence-Numbucca Region | CNR | Northern Zone | NHZ |
| Mid North Coast Region | MNR | Northern Zone | NHZ |
| Richmond-Tweed Region | RTR | Northern Zone | NHZ |
| Southern Highlands Region | SHR | South East Zone | SEZ |
| Illawarra South Coast Region | ISR | South East Zone | SEZ |
State Units
There is a number of state based units outside of the zone structure. These units generally have a state wide focus or report directly to the state capability team.| Unit Name | Unit Code |
| Alpine Search & Rescue | ASR |
| Aviation Management | AMU |
| Bush Search & Rescue | BSR |
| Corporate & Spontaneous | COS |
| Operational Support | OSU |