The New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS) is joining mining company employees in the state's far-west to improve emergency services at a road-crash blackspot in a trial believed to be the first of its kind.
The RFS says declining volunteer rates and low populations have meant many areas of the region have gone without sufficient staff to respond to road crashes within the critical first 60 minutes after a serious road incident.
Eight members of Aurelia Metals' Hera Mine emergency response team (ERT) are now qualified to attend road crashes.
Superintendent Craig Warwick is the RFS Far West district manager and says the mine site is located in one of 12 blackspots in NSW where roadside assistance response time is greater than 60 minutes.
The hope is that the mine's ERT will help halve the current response time.
Mr Warwick says there are several reasons that rural areas tend to see significantly higher rates of road crashes.
"Such as, the mix of vehicles using the roads — from caravan trailers to road trains — and people travelling longer distances on isolated stretches," he said.
The trial is the company's first-ever road crash rescue partnership with the RFS.
Team to continue growth
The mine's ERT already liaises with NSW Ambulance Service, if needed, in life-threatening situations in the wider community, to help stabilise patients until paramedics arrive, but this is the first time it is being accredited to respond to road crashes.
The team is set to be operational in about a month.
The ERT members now function as RFS volunteers in addition to their work at the mine.
A further 10 members are proposed to be added over the next year out of the ERT's total strength of 29.
Darren Mills is Aurelia Metals' safety and training advisor at Hera.
"We'll basically be able to respond within about an 80-kilometre radius of our mine site, but also working closely with other emergency resources such as NSW Ambulance and NSW Police," he said.
Over the last six months, the team has responded to approximately four callouts between the mine site and the local community.
Given this frequency of incidents, Mr Mills said it would be well-equipped to respond to simultaneous call-outs.
"We definitely have the members and the resources from Aurelia to respond to a scenario on-site and in the community at the same time," he said.
Mr Warwick says RFS volunteer rates have dropped by about 5 per cent in the Far West region in the last five years.
"Families are moving off farms, our community members are ageing. In the Nymagee area, our average member age is about 50," he said.
Mr Warwick says the next generation is reluctant to take on farming businesses and large corporations are buying up those lands instead.
"I hope we can get more big corporations, especially the miners with their emergency response, coming on because it can work really well with the RFS," he said.
The RFS has stationed an emergency response vehicle at Aurelia's Hera Mine for use by the ERT, costing about $150,000.
