Victorian State Emergency Service volunteers joined forces with the Victoria Police Search and Rescue squad to take part in a four-day high angle rescue operator training exercise.

The intensive course consisted of various training exercises involving different high angle rescue scenarios, designed to strengthen the skills and confidence of members.

Stawell SES controller Alan Blight said volunteers from a variety of SES bases in the region participated in the exercise.

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He said the more volunteers that have high angle rescue training the better.

“There are plenty of people who go bouldering and rock climbing in the Grampians so we need to make sure we have volunteers who are able to assist should those people need help,” he said.

A high angle rescue involves the use of technical rope rescue skills to rescue injured people on terrain at slopes of 60 degrees or more. 

High angle rescue operators can often build on-site rigging systems designed to raise or lower victims to the optimum elevation for safe extraction.

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The aim of the course was to also build on the existing knowledge of members and reinforce the skills required by high angle rescue operators, when working on incidents over vertical cliffs or buildings.

 “This kind of joint exercise is great way to show how VICSES is part of a united approach with the other emergency services, who all work as one during emergencies,” VICSES technical rescue operations officer Andrew Feagan said.

“Victoria Police is the control agency for a majority of the rescues we undertake, it’s vital members have a detailed knowledge of how VICSES volunteers operate in incidents such as this”.

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