On Wed 25th Feb 2026, members enjoyed their first off-site visit for quite some time, privileged to be invited to the Ballarat SES.
SES employee and Rotarian Stewart Riddel hosted us and gave us an excellent run down of the SES.
The SES has 2 locations within Ballarat; the Regional office (where Stewart works) in Dowling St and the Ballarat volunteer’s unit in Gillies St where we gathered.
Stewart explained that there are about 5000 SES volunteers in Victoria along with about 250 paid staff. The Ballarat Volunteer’s Unit was established in March 1975 and has 62 active members including 2 junior members. You have to be 16 to join the SES. The unit meets every Tuesday night for training. There are 4 crews available. They are on call 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Each member has a pager to be activated when they are on call.
The SES has a number of areas of responsibility: floods, storms, tsunamis, earthquakes and landslides. The SES works closely with other Emergency Services; CFA, FRV, ambulance and police.
The Ballarat SES unit is one of the busiest in Victoria. In 2024/25 they had 660 requests for assistance and so far in financial year 2025/26 there have been 534 requests for assistance. Whilst they are often called out for car accidents the unit does not have the “jaws for life” equipment.
After some inciteful questions, Stewart then showed us all of the equipment and vehicles that the SES unit has .. 75% of which are funded by the unit itself from fundraising and grants. So, we saw the very large vehicles with the majority of the equipment. These trucks, fully loaded can weigh from 4-11 tonnes and Stewart explained that this causes a problem as they often have to travel on rough gravel roads, resulting in a lot of damage to the trucks. The equipment also includes 2 smaller, fully equipped utes as well as a boat and a dingy. This unit gets a lot of call outs (even outside their area) for their boats.
Thanks to Stewart for showing us through as well as Ann Holloway and Karen Riddel for coordinating the breakfast, which Rotarians shared at the conclusion of the event.
