In the early 1960s, there were no ambulances in Wodonga.
Ambulance Victoria Wodonga team manager Mike Fuery said if someone needed emergency care, they had to call for help from Albury.
"Wodonga was a growing population. Albury was continually servicing this area, and their workload was growing as well," he said.
"So it was decided that we need to look at this more seriously, to try to look after people better.
Wodonga Council met with the board of the hospital to come up with a plan.
Sixty years ago, this Sunday, May 1, the North Eastern Victoria District Ambulance Service was born.
To begin with, the service was based out of Wodonga's Terminus Hotel and consisted of two people.
But Mr Fuery said the community really got behind them.
"There was fundraising and all that sort of community spirit that went into building what we have today, which is fantastic," he said.
The service secured a temporary branch at a house in Huon Street, before land was obtained and a branch was built at the current South Street site, which opened in 1967.
Caring for the community
Now, 45 staff are employed in the area across a variety of clinical and management roles.
"While members of our team have changed over the years, everyone associated with the branches has been committed to looking after those in our community in their moments of greatest need," Mr Fuery said.
None more, perhaps, than Grant Parker, who is Wodonga's longest current-serving paramedic.
He has been caring for the community for 42 years.
Mr Parker joined the St John Ambulance youth program when he was still in primary school.
Then he started as a cadet and has never looked back.
He became a first aid officer, then a volunteer paramedic, and worked his way up to be a Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance paramedic.
Mr Parker said it was amazing to see the changes to the service over four decades.
"The most significant [change] I've witnessed has been in clinical standards and in what we can actually do to help our patients," Mr Parker said.
Mr Fuery echoed the thought, saying that in the beginning, they mostly supplied basic first aid, with a few additional procedures.
"Now we're carrying sophisticated cardiac monitors and carrying lots of medications that treat people where they are, rather than waiting until we get them into hospital."
High demand for service
While services have certainly advanced since 1961, Mr Fuery said they were always facing challenges.
Ambulance wait times have been an issue across Victoria as the system struggles to keep up with demand.
In Wodonga, 72.2 per cent of Code 1 incidents were responded to in less than 15 minutes for the second quarter of 2021 – 2022, down from 83.5 per cent in the same period the year before.
The state-wide target is 85 per cent.
"It's always a challenge," Mr Fuery said.
COVID-19 was a big challenge for them, as they had to adapt quickly to keep their staff safe while also helping the community.
"We couldn't afford to get infected," he said.
"Because that would take out half our service and reduce our capacity to respond. So, it was a case of looking after ourselves."
And the continuing high demand for their services means they won't be holding a big anniversary celebration on Sunday.
"We don't have much time on the day to do anything too extravagant because we're continually being called out and paged for cases," Mr Fuery said.
