Operation Saddler

For anyone interested

Operation Saddler

held here in Tenterfield

can be seen at

6.30pm

Ch.9

Monday

14.6.2010

should be good!

Operation Saddler

The 21st & 22nd of this month saw a whirlwind of activity not normally seen in a small country town like Tenterfield. Hosting the first of a series of regional NSW counter terrorism exercises, Tenterfield found itself right in the thick of it.

With more that 100 staff and resources gleamed from the NSW Police, Fire, Ambulance, RFS, SES and Health plus onlookers from some of the Queensland emergency services it proved to be one of the most interesting exercises I have ever been involved in.

As usual I was stuck in the kitchen .... but you will see from the gallery http://www.tentergrafix.com.au/events.html I did escape a couple of times!

Catering requirements became a challenge as the hours went by - Friday was a mild day weather-wise until lunch time when the heavens opened - thank goodness for a 4-bay shed. Covers for the day were about 80 - though it did start at 40! Morning Tea and lunch was out in the field on Saturday complete with sunshine. We fed approx 130. Lots of empty plates and folk coming back for seconds!

Tracy Grimshaw and the 'A Current Affair' team were embedded within the exercise for the two days and with any luck within the next week or so their program will go to air.

Water, Water everywhere ......

Last week was full-on at the shop, culminating in an even busier weekend catering for an RFS run First Aid course at Tenterfield HQ both Saturday and Sunday, as well as managing to squeeze in my own BFS training on the Saturday afternoon covering the practical portion of BF Equipment.

Why do I do this to myself - by Thursday I am looking forward to Friday 'cause its the end of the week and I reckon I can put my feet up over the weekend ... Ha!!

It was gratifying to experience team work from the trainees and their Trainer - it made the afternoon run smoothly.

Smiles, concentration, questions and answers, soggy boots, improvisation and generally enjoying ourselves - made for the perfect classroom situation.

Have a look at the gallery for more photos.
http://www.tentergrafix.com.au/html

RFS Northern Regional Exercise

Just before Easter the Northern Regional Exercise celebrated its 10th year of being. This year in excess of 450 Rural Fire Service volunteers and staff participated in a variety of heart pumping scenarios that took place in and around Glen Innes between 26th and 28th March.

Not all the scenarios were photographed since this photographer was primarily there as part of the catering crew. Maths was never one of my strongest subjects but by my calculations there would have to have been at least 3500 meals put together - possibly even more. Visit the gallery to see more photos.

http://www.tentergrafix.com.au/events.html