A spur of windy weather saw the Upper Yarra SES take on 16 callouts on 15 September.
With trees toppled atop car ports and roads, emergency volunteer crews kicked into action and successfully managed the increase in activity.
Upper Yarra SES deputy controller Garion Hall said while it “wasn’t a huge day”, crews had to be resourceful to deal with each callout.
One job stood out to Mr Hall which was an example of how emergency crews have to think outside of the box to find solutions.
Crews had turned up to a large tree on top of a collapsed car port, held up only by the car underneath it.
“When the tree’s that big, it’s beyond our ability [to remove the tree].
“But what we could do is trim the branches back a bit and prop up the carport… cut some of the roof beams with the chainsaw, and then move the car out, mostly undamaged.
“So at least she could still drive her car around even though it was beyond us to actually take the tree off the carport in this case,” Mr Hall said.
The sudden and unexpected intensification of the winds on Monday was an example of the increasingly unpredictable climate.
Mr Hall said while climate change would bring more extreme weather conditions more often, he wasn’t concerned about the SES’s capacity to deal with those situations.
“With more extreme climate situations, it’s likely that sort of thing is going to happen again at some time in the future.
“We’re concerned by climate change, but we’re not concerned about our ability to deal with things that come up in our region,” Mr Hall said.
The daunting National Climate Risk Assessment (NCRA) released by the Australian Climate Service on 15 September has made waves throughout the country as it laid bare a scary future for Australia.
Events such as the June 2021 storms would become more common as the report identified an increase in severe weather events.
The NCRA also stated spending on damages to soar, with the Yarra Ranges expected to bear a 199 per cent increase in spending by 2050 if average global temperatures rise by 1.5 degrees (which has already happened in some parts of Australia).
It’s no doubt emergency services will be squeezed to its limits too – but Mr Hall remained confident in the collaboration between units.
He pointed to how crews will travel across the state to help out affected areas.
“I think we feel pretty good, and we know that we can get help from nearby units.
“For example… Western Victoria put out a call for a deployment on Tuesday night, they ended up with 50 or 60 people in just a one-hour period,” Mr Hall said.
The majority of callouts for the Upper Yarra SES on Monday were during the day, which can actually make it harder for a response due to most members being at work.
“Most of the jobs were during the daytime, which is often difficult for us because many of our members work down the line and aren’t available up here during the daytime,” Mr Hall said.
One crew responded to eight calls in one day, while an unofficial “evening crew” was assembled to alleviate the others and deal with jobs going into the night.
“People knock off work and come home at four or five pm, and they can then start working on more jobs.”
Preparations are being made for the changing climate locally at the Upper Yarra SES, with a range of training being undertaken to try and ensure members are equipped to deal with any situation confronting them.
But, Mr Hall said the state body for the SES has also provided support through intelligence briefings.
“SES has an intelligence department who helps us with long range forecasts and predictions by different regions.
“So we’ve been getting a bunch of reports about the fire season, and of course the flood and the storm season coming up,” Mr Hall said.
He said the SES always needed more volunteers to help out during times of crisis. Those who are interested in becoming a volunteer can sign up here: ses.vic.gov.au/join-us.
