Origin and evolution of Maitland SES
The devastating flood of February 1955 in Maitland was one of the catalysts for the formation of the State Emergency Service (SES) in New South Wales. Fittingly, the Maitland SES unit was among the first such units to be formed in the state, though it was not - despite local belief - the very first SES unit to be established in NSW. Nor was the flood at Maitland the primary reason for the organisation’s coming into existence.
Establishment of the SES
Many areas, in the Hunter and in the northern inland of the state, experienced their worst-ever flooding in 1955, following several years of severe floods throughout NSW. Indeed the years between 1949 and 1955 brought many unusually frequent and severe floods with little of the state not having at least one very big flood event.
Reacting to these floods, the ALP state government under Premier JJ (Joe) Cahill came to the view that a specialist flood management agency was needed to co-ordinate responses to floods. The widespread severe flooding of February 1955 was perhaps the final straw that forced the government to act.
The big floods had exposed serious deficiencies in flood management, highlighting the need for a specifically flood-focused agency with appropriate authority, training and resources. On 26 April 1955, a cabinet minute proposed the establishment of the State Emergency Services, as it was originally known, with Cabinet approval following a week later.
The SES was to be staffed primarily by volunteers drawn from local communities. A state headquarters was to be located in central Sydney and regional headquarters at various locations throughout the state to support the activities of the local volunteers.
The Cold War context: the Civil Defence Organization
Almost at the same time as the SES was founded, the state government set up the Civil Defence Organization (CDO) to co-ordinate civilian activities in the event of war breaking out. The Cold War between the USA and the USSR had become well established, the ‘Iron Curtain’ had descended on Europe, and in 1949 the Soviet Union had successfully tested an atomic bomb. World War III, possibly to be fought between nuclear powers, had become a frightening possibility.
The original badge of the Civil Defence Organization, adopted in 1956
(Civil Defence Organisation and State Emergency Services)
The Civil Defence Organization was to plan for the evacuation of Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong to country areas should hostilities become likely or actually begin, and to co-ordinate the provision of help to ‘stricken areas’ hit by enemy strikes potentially with nuclear weapons. The state’s three main urban areas were thought to be the most likely targets of enemy strikes.
Over the next few years the other Australian states formed similar civil defence organisations. In all of them, the capital city and nearby industrial centres (like Geelong in Victoria) were taken as being the areas most vulnerable to attack. The prevailing thinking was that an enemy, presumed likely to be the USSR, would seek to cripple Australia, strongly allied with the USA and the UK, by targeting its main cities. A small number of atomic bombs, perhaps launched from submarines in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, would have been thought capable of bringing the entire country to its knees.
In February 1956, the CDO and the SES in NSW were merged into a single body called the Civil Defence Organization and State Emergency Services. The other states gradually followed suit, forming combined flood management and civil defence agencies of their own.
The Maitland unit and local politics
The Maitland SES unit was founded later in 1956. Seeking to maintain as large a measure of control over Maitland’s unit as possible, the Maitland City Council exercised its right to nominate the unit’s leaders. The Mayor, Alderman Harry Skilton, became the founding unit leader (the Local Controller) with Town Clerk Stan Dunkley his deputy. For nearly 40 years until the 1990s, all the local controllers were to be councillors or senior council staff members.
Many NSW councils did the same thing: they were suspicious of what they saw as the state government’s ‘intrusion’ into communities’ rights to manage their own emergencies locally. Taking unit leadership locally was a means of ensuring a measure of council control. In effect this was part of the never-ending battle between state and local government for power.
Early operations and training
An early task for the Maitland unit’s leaders was to divide the City into sectors and appoint wardens in each sector. Specialised ‘sections’ were established to manage specific tasks including communications, handled by the Signals Section. Members trained in civil defence matters, learning about radiation and its measurement, became competent in first aid and planned for the management of evacuations. Planning in the Maitland case included laying the groundwork for the reception of large numbers of potential evacuees from Newcastle when an enemy attack became possible or had occurred.
For a few years, civil defence dominated the organisation’s activities, but the flood management role was also important. Between 1957 and 1971 twelve floods were recorded at the Belmore Bridge across the Hunter River. Some members of the Maitland unit learned how to operate powered floodboats - by 1960 the unit had four of these - and resupply operations, rescues and evacuations were undertaken from the unit’s earliest years.
Training activities and operations were conducted initially from the Council Chambers in High St. Later, the Council provided dedicated local headquarters facilities, first in the former Ascot movie theatre in Morpeth and later in a disused coal industry research centre at Telarah. Eventually, as the world geopolitical situation stabilised and the fear of nuclear warfare receded, the civil defence responsibility was wound down. It had virtually disappeared by the end of the 1970s.
The former Ascot Theatre in Morpeth, once the Maitland SES headquarters
Today Maitland’s SES, like the more than 260 other SES units across the state, focuses on floods, storm damage mitigation (including placing tarpaulins on damaged roofs to forestall internal damage and removing fallen trees from buildings) and assisting other emergency organisations including the Police and the fire authorities. It is also the ‘combat agency’ (lead agency) for tsunami.
The unit’s members were heavily involved in the response to the Newcastle Earthquake in 1989 and participated in the Thredbo landslide operation in 1997. They have also been to the fore in many bush fire and storm response operations outside Maitland itself (including the great Sydney hailstorm of 1999) as well as those which have been necessary within the city’s boundaries.
Flood management remains a primary responsibility of the Maitland SES: Maitland is one of the most flood-liable communities in the state. Long-term records show on average one flood per year at the Belmore Bridge. Some years have seen several flood events in quick succession, and a number of them have been very severe in their consequences. None since the flood of 1955, though, have been nearly as significant as the flood of that year.
Nevertheless resupply operations for people cut off by floodwaters have been common during floods, rescue and evacuation activity less so. On occasions the Maitland Station floodgates have been sandbagged to stop water getting into the station and nearby areas.
The sandbagged floodgate immediately west of Maitland Station, 2007, keeping water out of the station and other low-lying areas
(Maitland Mercury)
A large, purpose-built headquarters facility was eventually provided by the City Council in Waterworks Rd, Telarah. This building houses the unit’s floodboats and other equipment and provides space for training and planning activities.
Today’s Maitland City SES headquarters building in Telarah.
(Peter Smith)
References
Keys, Chas, In Times of Crisis: the Story of the New South Wales State Emergency Service, Focus Publishing, Bondi Junction, 2005.
Keys, Chas, ‘Born of Need: Unit Histories of the New South Wales State Emergency Service’, The Volunteer, Sydney, 2006.
Keys, Chas, Maitland Speaks: the Experience of Floods, Floodplain Publishing, Sydney, 2020.
Keys, Chas, ‘Our past: the origins of Maitland SES’, Maitland Mercury, 2 December 2022.
