David Oakely, 82, remembers the night he was called out with the Northern Midlands SES to cut open a vehicle with the old “jaws of life”.
It operated like the pump for an inflatable bed and David was pumping madly – there was a young boy trapped under the back seat and two females in the front were deceased.
It was a car accident that had occurred in the middle of the day and his strongest memory is of the sweat dripping off him onto the road while he kept on pumping – only stopping when a specialist rescue truck arrived from Launceston because he and his colleagues were unable to cut their way in.
This is what volunteer members of the State Emergency Service do without payment – they help anyone in need in virtually any situation, and they train every week in their own time to be ready.
“You’ve got to give back to your community if you want the best out of it,” David said simply.
David is a founding member of the Northern Midlands SES unit and still an active member 37 years on, and he was one of six outstanding volunteers recognised with Life Membership at a special ceremony on Saturday, September 2 at their headquarters in Bedford street, Campbell Town.
Graeme McGee, Hamish Willow, Peter Wickham, Rob Thomas and Bevis Perkins (dec) and David have notched up nearly 140 years between them and following some kind and sometimes funny words from their unit manager Lindsay Viney, they received their certificates of recognition.
David also received a State SES Life Membership and a long service award and the prestigious pins and bars befitting the status which also includes FSM and ESM after his name.
These will be added to a swag of national service medals for his work in emergency services including 60 years with the Campbell Town Fire Brigade.
After a varied working life that took him from mechanics to building to truck driving to fish and chip shop owner to supermarket owner – David has had the constant desire to help others.
He’s managed to do that while raising three children and running a small business.
“It’s not as easy to find volunteers now, and yes ‘that highway’ can be a horrible place when you’re doing road crash rescues, but you get so much out of it and it can really set you up for the future,” he said.
“SES members are renowned for their resilience, when we come up against a brick wall we don’t give up and we find a way around it, it was a hard road in the early days but we got there and we’re very proud of it.”
David was one of three firefighters, along with Graeme McGee and Bevis Perkins, who first campaigned to separate the road rescue operations from Ambulance Tasmania and form the Campbell Town SES.
With a lot of pushing by Jim Cattican for Ambulance Tasmania to assist with.supplying a vehicle for this rescue crew, and with local Councils from Oatlands, Fingal, Ross and Campbell Town helping with funding, a second hand Ford F100 V8 was secured as a rescue truck.
The year 2000 saw the purchase of a new Mazda truck to replace the F100 and that too is ready for replacement and should arrive not long after the unit moves into its soon to be built new headquarters near the Campbell Town showground.