People say it takes a certain type of person to join the State Emergency Services (SES), but Wyndham West unit controller Tim Smiley disagrees.
“if you’re the type of person who wants to give back to the community and learn different skills and frameworks outside of your day to day office job, that’s more than enough,” Tim said.
“Anyone can do it, it’s just the skills you learn on the way make it more challenging and exciting.”
Tim says an increase in overall incidences has left many SES units across the state needing more volunteers.
“From storm damage to [fallen] trees, we’re even getting calls now for people that have burst pipes in their house,” he said.
“With the more members we can get, it takes a lot of strain off those other members.”
Tim has dedicated more than 12 years of his life to volunteering and enjoys giving back to the community, but says he initially found the SES “by accident”.
“A friend that I hung around with was in it, he said ‘come along’ so I joined, and I’ve loved it ever since,” he said.
“The amount of skills and community engagement that you do here is just phenomenal.”
When responding to call outs, Tim said community members are “very grateful” for their assistance.
“You’re only there to give them a lending hand, so they know some people do care. Sometimes that’s all they need, just to know someone’s listening to my problems,” he said.
