A Brief History of the SES

The State Emergency Service was established in July 1959 for the purpose of «coping with civil disasters including fires, floods, cyclones, railway accidents, crashed aircraft, explosions and the search for lost persons». The Commissioner of Police was responsible for its operation.

In October 1961, following a royal commission on bush fires and a government review into ways to combat cyclones and floods, the State Emergency Service was amalgamated with the older Civil Defence Organisation.

The combined organisation was responsible to the Western Australian Premier's Department and known as the Civil Defence and Emergency Service of Western Australia.

In July 1974, in line with national re-orientation away from civil defence to natural disaster response, the organisation changed to its current title of the Western Australian State Emergency Service and responsibility for the organisation was transferred to the Public Works Department.

Organisational headquarters were situated at Belmont where the State Emergency Operations Centre was contained in an underground facility known as the 'bunker'. In the early days local volunteer units were located at Subiaco and Perth, as well as diverse locations like Westrail and the Swan Brewery.

In order to provide coverage throughout Western Australia, the state was divided into various regions. From 1976 onwards State Emergency Service regional coordinators were appointed to each of these regions, the Gascoyne/Murchison and Pilbara regions being the first.

Responsibility for the organisation was moved back to the Premier's Department in 1977 and six years later to the Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Local Government.

In 1995, the State Emergency Service was established as a separate department and this remained in place until 1997 when the SES became a division of the newly created Department of Fire and Emergency Services pending legislation to create the Fire and Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia (FESA).

When FESA came into being in January 1999, the State Emergency Service had more than 80 units and 2,500 volunteers across the state. It fulfils FESA's role of Hazard Management Agency for tropical cyclones, floods, storms, earthquakes and tsunamis and also Combat Authority for land search, road crash rescue, as well as cliff and cave rescue.

Our Vision

A safer community.

Our Mission

Working with the people of Western Australia to improve community safety practices and provide timely, quality and effective emergency services.

Our Values

Put the community first: We value our community and strive to meet its needs.

Work together as a committed team: Each individual has something of value to contribute. By working together, we can better achieve our mission.

Respect and value each other: We respect the courage, compassion and professionalism of our staff and volunteers and will ensure that our organisation provides a satisfying and rewarding environment for them.

Continuously improve our services: Sustained development of personal and professional skills and program delivery is the key to better serving our community.

Act with integrity and honesty: We will be honest, trustworthy and act with integrity at all times.

Open and honest two-way communications: We will communicate openly and honestly with both each other and the community.

WA Public Sector Code of Ethics

The Western Australian Public Sector Code of Ethics sets out the ethical principles, values and behaviour with which all public sector bodies and their members, and all public sector employees, must comply when interacting with each other and their customers.

The three ethical principles on which the Code of Ethics is based are:

• Justice: Be fair, use and share power for the common good, take non-discriminatory action.
• Respect for persons: Respect the rights of others and act to empower others to claim their rights.
• Responsible care: Contribute to the well-being of individuals, and the common good of society.

Copies of the Code of Ethics can be obtained from the Human Services Division.

Living Our Values

Our values encompass the ethical principles, values and behaviour embodied in the Western Australian Public Sector Code of Ethics.

In addition to the Code of Ethics, there are numerous legislative requirements, policies and procedures that are issued on behalf of the Government by other agencies, as well as various internally developed policies and procedures that outline the way the Authority operates.

These numerous legislative requirements, policies and procedures are well documented in various forms and accessible to all employees of the organisation and the volunteers we support.

By using our values as the basis for our decision making and behaviour, we will be complying with the Code of Ethics and the various legislative requirements, policies and procedures that apply to us.

Accordingly, as individuals, we will always endeavour to 'live our values' and, just as importantly, we will also encourage and help each other to make sound ethical decisions and to always behave in an ethical manner.

Through living our values we will be both individually and collectively working towards our Mission and Vision.