By Callum Ludwig
The Upper Yarra SES Unit assisted Ambulance Victoria with a suspected snake bite on Wednesday 5 February.
The patient was located on one of the mountain bike tracks set to be part of the Warburton Mountain Bike Destination, with SES crews paged to assist paramedics in retrieving the patient in the tough terrain.
Upper Yarra SES Unit Controller Hannah Brunton said the patient was in the care of Ambulance Victoria and they were requesting SES to extricate them back to the ambulance.
“Our crews utilised a device called the mule which is a singular wheel on a frame structure that helps us to carry patients over arduous terrain and they carried the patient approximately a kilometre out to meet the ambulance,” she said.
“We’re always happy to help out AV (Ambulance Victoria) and their crews are always super grateful for the assistance that we can give.”
Construction of Stage One of the Warburton Mountain Bike Destination project began in August 2024, with works being carried out my World Trail and the first trails expected to be open in the first half of 2025, subject to weather conditions.
Ms Brunton said not just in the Upper Yarra but all around the local area, we are seeing a lot of snake activity.
“You can see it in the reports that people are putting up on Facebook on the local noticeboards, there’s a lot of snakes out and about and I think people just need to be vigilant of where they’re walking and what they’re doing, it’s summer time so there’s going to be snakes and people just need to be mindful to give them their space,” she said.
“This area obviously still is under construction but even once it’s not, it’s such a big wide space for us to cover that any information that the patients or the person making the phone call to emergency services can give to identify that location, the better it is and the faster we can get out there,”
“There is an app that people can download (Emergency +) that will provide you with your own current latitude and longitude and it will also give you a code called what3words, and if that information can be given to the call takers, that information can then be passed on to us and helps us find people a lot faster than if we’re having to roam around a general track to try and find someone.”
An Ambulance Victoria spokesperson confirmed that paramedics were called to an incident in Wesburn at around 3.15pm on 5 February.
“A male in his 20’s was transported by road to Maroondah Public Hospital in a stable condition with lower body injuries,” they said.
