By Oliver Winn
A La La Falls rescue callout by the Upper Yarra SES resulted in a “really positive outcome” for the patient as they left the ordeal unscathed.
The Hec Sebire Rover Crew were hiking through the popular Warburton bushwalk location on Tuesday 22 April at 9.30 pm when one of its members suffered from a medical episode which prompted the callout.
Upper Yarra SES unit controller Hannah Brunton said the callout was a fairly simple one.
“La La Falls is a pretty straightforward one because it’s one-track in, one-track out, so the callers were able to identify where they were, and we set up the mule and walked in.”
“We found them almost at the peak of La La Falls, once AV (Ambulance Victoria) was done doing what they did, the patient was loaded into the mule, and then we headed back to the car park where they could be loaded into the ambulance,” Ms Brunton said.
The outdoors group, based in Lilydale, were doing some geocaching at night when the incident occurred and SES crews were paged for assistance.
Though callouts for La La Falls are quite common for the Upper Yarra SES, these rescues tend to be less complicated due the easily accessible terrain and it being an incline, not a decline.
“We go there quite often, but it is an incline so they’re not typically really gory and gruesome injuries,” Ms Brunton said.
“Most of our call outs there are medical episodes, they’re not always proper injuries because the path up there is quite well-maintained.”
Ambulance Victoria (AV) were on the scene and provided medical assistance to the patient.
“Ambulance Victoria responded to calls to an incident in Warburton at around 9:30pm last night (22 April),” an AV spokesperson said.
“No emergency transport was provided.”
After the patient was safe, the Hec Sebire Rover Crew performed the patient’s investiture, establishing them into the Rovery Crew with the presentation of their scarf.
The Upper Yarra SES made a Facebook post and stated they were “incredibly honoured” to be included in the special moment.
