16 February 2010

River search in Gilgandra

On Tuesday the 16th February at 8pm Dubbo VRA Rescue Squad were responded to Gilgandra to assist with a search for a missing 4 year old girl. Reports from police on scene said she was last seen swimming with family when she went missing. On arrival Dubbo rescue squad quickly went to work installing a river fence across the river with other searchers from ses and rfs crews went to work scaling the river and it banks in search of the missing girl working to the early hours of the morning. At 3am Dubbo rescue squad returned to Dubbo before heading back that morning at 8am to rejoin the search with police divers and polair from Sydney a full day searching of the river and its banks there was no sign of the missing 4 year old. On the 18th of February Dubbo rescue squad rejoined search at 8am with a crew from Narromine VRA there task to search the river again half a hour into the search members of the Dubbo rescue squad and Narromine VRA had located the missing 4 year old on the eastern side of the river in the water. The members of the Dubbo Rescue Squad and Narromine VRA worked closely with the Forensic Officers from NSW Police to photograph the scene and police divers recover the missing 4 year old girl. Once again the NSW Police praised the VRA for their Professionalism and persistence to see the incident through to the end and provide closure to the family.

Anthony McEachem

Operational Coordinator Dubbo Rescue Squad

11 February 2010

Lucky find at Deniliquin

Deniliquin Rescue Squad members were called to the Millewa State Forest about 50km south of Deniliquin at approximately 9am on the 11th of February 2010 to search for a man who had been reported missing the previous night, and  to recover a capsized boat in the Edward River approximately 40 meters downstream from the man’s campsite. The man had not been sighted for approximately 14 hours and whilst setting up for the boat recovery, Police and two of the Deniliquin Rescue Squad members located the man in the forest approximately 6km from the capsized boat. The previous night the man had hit a submerged log and capsized his boat, then tied the boat up to the bank and proceeded to walk in the opposite direction of his camp on the wrong side of the river assuming he was returning to camp.
Deniliquin Rescue Squad then proceeded with the recovery of the boat and assisted the Police to load the boat onto the trailer.
The man was transported to the Deniliquin Hospital Via ambulance.

7 February 2010

Wagga Wagga tragedy

Approximately 1140am on the 5th February 2010 the Wagga Wagga Rescue Squad received a call from the police to attend a persons trapped motor vehicle accident 10km west of Wagga on the Olympic highway.
On arrival rescuers found that there had been a head on between two cars with two deceased women in one car and a male and a female in the other car  with ambulance officers treating them.The female was trapped in the vehicle for around 15 minutes before she could be released by rescuers, She was conveyed to wagga base hospital suffering serious neck, back and chest injuries before being airlifted to The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. The male driver was also conveyed to wagga base hospital for his injuries,The Olympic Highway was closed in both directions for about 5 hours while police conducted their investigations into the cause of the crash.
Approximately 1pm on the 7th February 2010 the Wagga Wagga Rescue Squad received a call from the police to attend a cat stuck in the wall of a house.  On arrival rescuers found that the owner of the cat had tried to rescue  the cat by knocking a hole into the brick wall but with no luck. Rescuers used a hammer and a bolster chisel to remove some more bricks and a short time later the cat was removed from the wall and given back to the owner.
After Wagga VRA called back on from the Animal rescue they were directed by police to assist in a search in wagga for a 4 year old boy who had been missing since 9am. VRA members conducted a search of the house and its back yard with no luck. Police officers started doing a door knock of the street looking for the boy while VRA members were sent down to search the banks of a lake and a creek that were close by the house and was also known to the boy. After searching for 30 minutes the boy was located by police and returned back to his family in good health. Wagga VRA returned back to the police command post and were thanked for their assistance.

Tim Lidden
Squad Captain