NSW SES Yamba and Maclean Units would like to thank our community for their support during recent severe weather event.

 

Clarence Valley Independent, 30 March 2021:

As flood levels fall across the Clarence Valley and recovery actions are in full swing, our local NSW SES members and emergency services continue to respond to calls for assistance while cleaning up and restocking their resources to prepare for any future events or call outs.

Over the past week, the Yamba and Maclean SES members have been working 24/7 attending to 134 requests for assistance, 21 flood rescues, 3 road crash rescues, multiple urgent medical evacuations and assisting ambulance transporting people across floodwaters.

NSW SES Yamba and Maclean Units would like to thank our community for their support during this severe weather event. Together these Units have approximately 25 members and during severe events, rely on community to help with various tasks. During this event the local Yamba Surf Life Saving Club and spontaneous volunteers from the community helped fill a whopping 30 cubic metres of sand for sandbags.

Chief Superintendent Steve Patterson said, “We would like to thank our local SES volunteers for their dedication and support to their communities. This includes our appreciation to their families who support them behind the scenes.”

“We also wish to thank the employers of our volunteers for releasing them and allowing them to volunteer with the NSW SES to support their communities,” Chief Supt. Patterson added.

NSW SES Yamba Unit Commander George Szekely reinforced Chief Supt. Patterson’s appreciation and added that the Clarence Valley needs to remain prepared for any future events…...

NSW State Emergency Service under the ICAC microscope

For many years I have heard female volunteer State Emergency Service workers complain about the blokey administrative culture of this vital agency.

Less often I have heard allegations about behaviour which came close to being unethical at best and at worst something else entirely.

Now The North West Star on 8 November 2013 reveals that these types of complaints may have some basis in fact:

NSW State Emergency Service Commissioner Murray Kear will come under the microscope at an ICAC inquiry next month.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption announced on Thursday that it would hold an inquiry from December 3, as part of an investigation into the sacking of former SES deputy commissioner Tara McCarthy.

The inquiry will probe whether Mr Kear dismissed Ms McCarthy in May in reprisal, after she alleged her colleague SES Deputy Commissioner Steven Pearce had acted corruptly.

It is expected to run for up to two weeks. The inquiry will also examine allegations that Mr Kear failed to appropriately investigate Ms McCarthy’s claims regarding Mr Pearce.

Mr Kear is also alleged to have made false statements or attempted to mislead an officer of the commission.

ICAC Assistant Commissioner Theresa Hamilton will preside over the inquiry, while Michael Fordham, SC, and Callan O’Neill will act as counsel assisting....

Heads up for strong winds, heavy rain and damaging surf in the Northern Rivers area - 1 July 2013

Click on image to enlarge

Pathetic NSW Government response to West Yamba concerns

This question was asked by Sylvia Hale MLC of the NSW Minister for Planning Kristina Keneally on 26 March 2009 (session 54-1) and printed in Questions & Answers Paper No. 92.

West Yamba LEP

1. Given the Mid North Coast Regional Strategy has identified West Yamba as a low lying area, are there major development constraints in the face of climate change impacts, specifically flooding and inundation, in West Yamba?
   
2. Will consideration be given to the latest climate science and sea level rise predictions when assessing the draft West Yamba LEP Amendment based on new data contained in the Government's Draft Sea Level Rise Policy Statement and coming out of the Copenhagen conference?
   
3. Clarence Valley Council has determined that residential development can be safely achieved by filling the West Yamba floodplain to half a metre above their projections of the 2090 maximum flood level, basing its calculations for safe floor levels on the 2007 International Panel on Climate Change predictions of less than 59cm. However, new predictions by scientists meeting in Copenhagen in 2009 estimate sea level will rise to double the level of the 2007 predictions. Should the Department and councils such as Clarence Valley Council therefore be revising their estimates of sea level rise and therefore the West Yamba LEP?

It took just on five weeks for this pathetic reply to come back on 29 April 2009 and to be printed in a Questions & Answers Paper on 5 May 2009.

Answer—

1. The Mid North Coast Regional Strategy identifies West Yamba as a site that requires issues to be resolved prior to rezoning. The Strategy requires that the issue of flooding needs to be resolved to determine the future development potential of the site.
   
2. –3.The draft Local Environmental Plan (LEP) will be reviewed against the Government's draft Sea Level Rise policy and the floodplain studies undertaken by Council.

Not good enough Minister Keneally, just not good enough.

In light of the problems highlighted in How serious is local government about protecting against climate change impacts? Not very it seems, if it is Clarence Valley Council, later in Is Clarence Valley Council being honest with NSW Planning Minister Keneally over proposed West Yamba development? and the letters you have received from concerned individuals/community groups, this answer was insulting to Yamba residents in its brevity and obfuscation.

This is the road in and out of Yamba, Minister Keneally.

Are you getting the picture yet?

Photograph from Google Images