By Oliver Winn
SES units are “eating, sleeping and breathing” the Warburton Mountain Bike Destination trail to prepare for an expected rise in rescues when the trail opens.
With the first stages of the WMBD trail to open in the first half of 2025, the Upper Yarra SES unit is undertaking specialised training and acquiring new equipment to better equip its members.
Upper Yarra SES unit controller Hannah Brunton said the increase in mountain bike related callouts will put strain on volunteers, which is problematic as other emergency services can’t perform the specialised rescues that the SES does.
“During those carry outs each agency has their own piece of the puzzle that they’re responsible for, and if you take out one puzzle piece, then that puzzle is never going to be completed.”
“So we’re looking at a longer time of having our volunteers tied up, which obviously then causes the issue of burnout with our volunteers and the need to potentially call in resources from other areas to help cover us,” Ms Brunton said.
SES units in the Yarra Ranges will partake in a large-scale multi-agency exercise including Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria, Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA), Yarra Ranges Council and Triple Zero Victoria.
The exercise aims to replicate a scenario in which emergency services have to respond to a call out on the WMBD trail and draw upon their respective skill sets to perform the rescue.
Using money raised by volunteers, the Upper Yarra SES have purchased a new vehicle kitted out with equipment specifically for mountain bike injury related call outs.
It will be fitted with a mule, a carrier on a single wheel designed to transport individuals over rough bush terrain and other tools which are commonly used in rescues in environments such as dense forest.
As reported by the Star Mail on 6 February, the Upper Yarra SES unit responded to a rescue for a WMBD trail builder who was bit by a snake while working on the trail.
Due to the rough terrain, Ambulance Victoria weren’t able to retrieve the patient from their location and required the SES’ mule device to transport, demonstrating the collaborative nature between agencies and how not one agency can perform all types of rescues.
“We’ve sort of taken our equipment list and cut it down to stuff that is only going to be relevant to these tracks and these sorts of injuries that we’re expecting to see,” Ms Brunton said.
But this means the unit has to source new equipment, since they cannot borrow from the other vehicles and leave them short in the case of a call out elsewhere.
“At this stage it’s going to be a funding issue.”
“I think we’ve worked out that it’s nearly $20,000 worth of equipment that we’re looking to put into this vehicle that is pretty much specifically only going to go out to the trails.”
While the training sessions and new equipment will leave emergency services better equipped to deal with WMBD trail callouts, Ms Brunton emphasised the need for people to take more measures when using the trails.
She recommended mountain bikers to always ride with a partner, and to download the what3words app which helps people communicate their exact location to emergency services.
“We had a rescue the other week, where there was two of them out riding and they had a person in a support vehicle, which was amazing because the person that was with the patient was able to send us the pin location so we could see exactly where he was on the maps and the person in the support vehicle was able to show us how they got in there roughly,” Ms Brunton said.
“If you went to the thousand stairs or something and you were like: ‘Oh, I fell over and broke my ankle,’ you can tell them exactly where you are.”
The size of the WMBD trail, with its countless entry points, highlights the importance of being aware of where you’re riding.
