Australia Day Honours 2019
The President and Committee of the SES Volunteers Association congratulate all Australia Day Honours recipients. In this year’s Honours List, one of the WA recipients is an SES Volunteer.
A well-deserved honour for Ken Dewhirst
Please see below a short outline of Ken Dewhirst’s history
Gordon Hall ESM
President – SESVA
Ken has been a member of the State Emergency Service (SES) since 1978, where he was a founding member of the Northam SES Unit. From this day he has been highly committed to the organisation, its members and the community. He always made himself available for any job, task or training, and quickly gained a range of valuable skills. He is a highly respected and trusted member who works tirelessly to do whatever he can across the state including incidents, training and mentoring.
Due to his dedication to the Northam unit, they awarded him a life membership in 1984, and later received recognition from the Lord Mayor.
Ken moved to Perth in 1984 and joined the Wanneroo Joondalup SES.
Ken is well known for his training abilities, which he started developing in the late eighties when he quickly gathered instructor competencies. He is a passionate trainer and loves to share his knowledge and experience. He has always taken the opportunity to travel to impart his knowledge, specific situations to note was in the late nineties where he travelled all over the Midland’s region, and then in 2000 when he went to Cocos Island and Christmas Island.
In 1998 and 1999, Ken travelled with two other trainers throughout the Midlands country region, training units whom due to their remoteness didn’t have access to local trainers. Ken and the team provided training in a range of skills, from Storm Damage, Driving, Rescue and Chainsaw Operations.
Well done and well deserved
This showed a great amount of commitment from Ken spending times away from home and proved a significant benefit to the service due to the increased capability in the region.
During his time in SES, he has run many preparedness exercises designed to test the emergency response and challenge agencies in preparation for a natural disaster. He has innovative ideas, which when paired with his enthusiasm and commitment he truly makes a difference in the SES.
He has organised a large amount of varied and challenging exercises during his time.
Throughout these 41 years as a Volunteer, Ken’s dedication has been unquestioned, and with the support of Volunteers from many SES Units, he has put the needs of the community first to assist in their preparedness for the effects of any natural hazard.
Well Done Ken
