About Us
The Communications Support Unit is a DFES-funded SES Unit. It is based at SWORD headquarters in Kewdale and has a current complement of thirty volunteers. These volunteers whose ‘daytime’ jobs range from students to retired technicians provide a vital communications service.
The CSU provides support to any other Emergency Service that requires assistance in the communications area. This can be (but is not limited to) providing:
- Additional radios, VHF, UHF and HF, both hand-held and base radio types to an emergency scene.
- Portable repeaters and radio masts for giving radio communications in difficult terrain or when the existing infrastructure is compromised
- Data communications links via 4G or satellite to remote areas
- Self-contained computing facilities to remote areas
- Personnel to act as radio operators, mappers, technical help during remote operations
- Personnel to man the Emergency Operations Centres during Flood/Storm emergencies
- Personnel to intra-state and inter-state locations to assist in emergencies
As the CSU (unlike many other SES Units) does not tend to climb on roofs and effect cliff rescues etc. the level of strength and fitness does not have to be as high and so there are roles for all levels and ages.
The Communications Support Unit is very active throughout the year providing communications in the field for bushfire and land search operations. During storms and floods CSU personnel help coordinate emergency service responses at DFES HQ.
When not on operations, we regularly visit local DFES units/brigades, and other agencies to make them aware of who we are, what we do, and to demonstrate the resources we have available. CSU also assists other units/brigades and agencies by providing equipment and personnel operationally and for displays, parades, exercises, or local PR events. We have over 150 years of combined communications experience amongst our personnel, and we are happy to use this experience, to aid those who request our assistance.
Recruitment
We are particularly keen to recruit volunteers who have technical skills in IT and data comms, due to the evolving nature of the tasks we are deployed to do. Recently we have been doing a lot of mapping work and hope to be the main drone unit for DFES when it is established in the next couple of months.
Other skills we develop are; good voice procedures and clear calm radio manner, logistic planning and leadership, so if you have strengths in these areas instead, this is also very welcome. If you have other skills, or indeed just enthusiasm and a desire to help, we are more than happy to bring you on board, there are roles for everyone.
CSU operations requirements require quite a lot of study, practical assessments and tests due to the technical nature of our work and also the environment we work in (for example CSU staff are frequently required to work within bushfire ‘hot zones’ so must pass bush firefighting courses as a prerequisite to becoming operational).
We train every Wednesday evening from 18:30 to around 21:30 This is usually at our base at 8 Ballantyne Road Kewdale. Often we have practice deployments and exercises off-site during those evenings and we also do exercises with other SES and SFES units in the Metro and Regional areas.
We are always looking for new members, so if you are interested in joining our unit or you would like to know more about us and what we do, please contact us via the link below. When you visit, why not bring a friend?