Although many rural SES units do vertical rescue, you only get the opportunity to train in it if you are a member of one of those units. However, situations arise in general rescue where some of these skills could come in handy. This is where the value of the “Wellington Wombats” weekend lies.

Organised by the Wellington SES and held at Wellington Caves, it gives members of other SES units a chance to practice their general rescue techniques in confined and difficult spaces. We started out with using a “self lowering technique” to enter the caves (for some reasons “abseiling” is a naughty word in the SES), followed by some basic cave exploration and finishing off with rescuing casualties from deep underground.

The weekend fills both days and the evening in between is a great opportunity to meet members of other units and swap “war stories”.

If you ever have an opportunity to go on this weekend I can thoroughly recommend it

When you are in the State Emergency Service, you are never quite sure what is going to happen during what is normally your spare time. On Friday night I came home and was settling down to a quiet beer before the TV, when the call came through about a collapsing veranda in Randwick.

We went out to the job to find a first storey veranda that was structurally sound in the middle but completely rotten around the outside. We ended up demolishing half of the veranda before it could fall down.

Then on Saturday there was a call about another house in Randwick that had slate tiles falling off the roof. It was a steep slippery roof on a two storey building so we had to call in the aid of a cherry picker. Once it arrived, the job was cleaned up fairly quickly, but the cherry picker took forever to arrive. It is always interesting to go back to my normal job on Monday and be asked “What did you do on the weekend?” and show them the photos.

Poor old Prince Harry won’t be allowed to participate in his country’s illegal invasion of Iraq because there is an unacceptable risk to his safety. The commander of the army has prohibited him from serving a tour of duty as the Prince is likely to be targeted by the patriotic Iraqis protecting their country from foreign invaders.
But is the Prince the only one being targeted? I would have thought that any member of the “Coalition of the Gullible” who is parading around Iraq would be a potential target. Following this logic, is it is unacceptable for Prince Harry to be there because he may be killed, it is unacceptable for ANY soldier to be there on the same grounds. Six hundred years of in-breeding should not be the basis for determining the head of state of any country, but to use it as an excuse to not send someone to war is a bit rich.
The gossip mags must be tearing their hair out. Imagine all of the great cover stories they could get if Harry was over there with the lads, mixing it up with his coalition partners. Here’s a picture of Harry in a tank in Baghdad, here he is commanding his troops in the desert, here he is shooting civilians, look, now Harry is torturing some prisoners, here he is with his brains splattered all over the inside of an armoured personnel carrier, (the latter being the fault of the paparazzi who were chasing him when he drove past the improvised explosive device).
What is the point of joining the army if you aren’t allowed to fight?
How different history might have been if Henry V after giving his bold Saint Crispin’s Day speech, had then retreated out of the line of fire rather than leading his troops into battle.
Surely this is just another example of what an antiquated notion the Royal family is.
Here’s some advice Harry, quit the army, get a real job and stop being a parasite to the community like the rest of your family.