Official Opening of the NSW Rural Fire Service Aviation Centre of Excellence in Dubbo.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 (Dubbo growling)
00:02 - Well, Dubbo has obviously already had
00:10 our training academy here,
00:12 but also it's very central for New South Wales.
00:14 So for us, it works out well to get our people
00:17 from all over the state to be able to come here.
00:20 Dubbo has got all the connectivity we need.
00:23 And as was mentioned, we've also got already our academy,
00:26 which is also central location.
00:27 So it works well for us.
00:29 There is no other facility like this.
00:31 I know there's some jurisdictions that are looking at
00:33 sort of some simulation systems,
00:35 but there is no other facility like this
00:38 with this technology.
00:40 Indeed, we're the first company to have even these machines
00:43 because they've been developed with us
00:46 by the Virtual Simulation Systems Company.
00:48 So what it allows us to do is to try new things,
00:51 try new ways of doing things in a simulated environment
00:54 without actually needing to do it in reality.
00:57 And I can see in future, as these simulators develop more,
01:01 if we've got a particularly tricky operation,
01:04 the aviation operation that needs to be tried,
01:07 you know, the next day,
01:08 that you'll end up running simulators on it
01:11 to see how that would come about
01:13 given the predicted conditions.
01:14 So to improve our training,
01:16 we wanna train a whole new generation
01:18 of air attack supervisors, air observers, winch operators.
01:22 And that's already a very heavy training schedule
01:25 for us to keep all the currency for people.
01:27 And I guess just getting that level of experience
01:29 and throwing things at them
01:31 that you'd never really be able to throw at them
01:33 in real life because it would be just too dangerous
01:36 to do that.
01:37 So being able to do that in this sort of environment,
01:39 I think will enable them to be so better equipped
01:43 when they actually get in an aircraft.
01:44 Our staff, when they start, spend 13 weeks out here anyway.
01:49 So we've gotta make sure the facility's good for that.
01:52 So there's a gym on site, there's a basketball court,
01:56 there's a running track,
01:57 and obviously there's lounge rooms around
01:59 because people are spending a lot of time out here.
02:01 They're spending months out here.
02:02 So we have to try and make it as best we can for them.
02:06 And I think a few of them do go on a bus trip
02:08 into town sometimes.
02:09 We often, I think in this country,
02:11 look at other countries that are, you know,
02:13 maybe bigger economies and the like than us.
02:15 But I think Australia punches well above its weight
02:18 as far as what we can develop here
02:20 and how we can project ourselves.
02:22 And I think this country has a very good reputation
02:25 as far as firefighting is concerned.
02:27 And I think these sort of facilities,
02:29 this technology all comes to reinforce that
02:32 and indeed enhance the capability of the country
02:36 and indeed New South Wales.
02:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]