Penrith State Emergency Service’s Local Controller, Derek Hudson, joined the volunteer rescue service in March of 1980 and after 11 years in the top job, has decided to step down.
He originally joined the SES when he saw an advertisement in a Kingswood Park shop asking, ‘Do you like to work in the rain?’.
“I joined because I thought it would be something different. I had an office job at the time and thought it would be interesting to work with rescues and chainsaws and the like,” Mr Hudson said.
Since first volunteering, Mr Hudson has been involved in countless rescues over the years and though he is stepping down from his role as Local Controller, will continue to volunteer.
“I was part of rescue efforts at the 1989 Newcastle Earthquake and the Thredbo Landslide in 1997,” he said.
Mr Hudson said that although many of the larger jobs were outside the Penrith area, there were also a number of memorable moments in Penrith too.
Mr Hudson recalls his first Christmas as Local Controller for the unit as frantic. On Christmas Eve he was battling bushfires directly from the Nepean River, and on Christmas Day he responded to the urgent calls to evacuate Warragamba as the fire spread.
“Then there was also the flooding in Londonderry in February this year, which involved rescuing many greyhounds and animals,” he said.
“There was also 800 jobs when a storm hit Penrith not long after a took up the position of Controller in 2001, which was more work than the flooding.”
On his last training night as Local Controller, Mr Hudson was thanked by his volunteers and presented with a knife made from a chainsaw blade.
Mr Hudson will continue to volunteer with the Penrith SES, but in a more limited capacity.
“I still want to help out where I can,” he said.
“But the time has come for me to spend some more time with my wife, my children, and my grandchildren.”
