Briefs USAR training Four QAS officers became official members of the Queensland Disaster Assistance Response Team (AUS Taskforce 1) in September after completing four weeks of Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Category 2 training at the Queensland Combined Emergency Services Academy at Whyte Island. The course culminated in a 48-hour exercise simulating a city block extensively damaged by an earthquake. The activity was designed to test the officers’ endurance in extreme conditions to locate, treat and rescue multiple trapped patients. QAS USAR facilitator Mark Zimmermann said the QFES sponsored course ensured our newest USAR members– paramedics Aleasha Stenhouse, Luke Adams, Charlotte Hood and Jacinta Nicholas–were now highly skilled and specialised in a wide variety of disaster response situations including all aspects of rescuing trapped and injured victims from building collapses, as well as damage assessment for natural or man‑made disasters.
It was the first time in almost two years QAS officers had undertaken USAR Category 2 training at Whyte Island. The QAS currently has more than 20 active USAR officers available to deploy with as little as two hours’ notice to domestic and international disaster zones to help locate, extricate and provide medical assistance to victims trapped in structural collapses. Our paramedics are also responsible for looking after the health and welfare of their USAR team members on scene. International incidents that our QAS USAR paramedics have been deployed to include the Samoa earthquake and tsunami in 2009 and earthquakes in Indonesia (2009) and Christchurch (2011). Domestic incidents include the 2019 Townsville Floods and Australian bushfire event, as well as Tropical Cyclones Larry (2006), Yasi (2011), Marcia (2015) and Debbie (2017).
4
ASM presentation
It has been a remarkable year for humble Rathdowney couple and long-serving QAS volunteers Lyn and Ian Richter, who were presented with Ambulance Service Medals by His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC, Governor of Queensland at a special ceremony at Government House in September. This followed their announcement as ASM recipients in the Queen’s Birthday Honour list in June. A beaming Lyn said it was amazing being announced as an ASM recipient and the ceremony at Government House was surreal and ‘one of life’s amazing moments’. “From a life point of view this was extremely special,” Lyn said. “It was lovely to be awarded and presented our medals together. We will never forget that moment.”
Photo courtesy of Government House
Summer 2020–21
The ASM is a deserving acknowledgement for the couple who have clocked up more than 60 years combined service volunteering for the QAS.
