Marty clocks up 35 years years !
Veteran SES member and Serpentine-Jarrahdale SES Local Manager, Marty Seward, has been serving the WA community as a SES volunteer for more than 35 years. He has also been a member of the SESVA Management Committee for the past two and a half years.
Having started with the SES in Gosnells in 1984 before heading north to spend three years in Port Hedland, and six years with the Karratha SES, Martin’s roots are deeply embedded in the Serpentine-Jarrahdale community. And community, for him, is what the job is all about.
“A drive for community and knowing that you can do something in the time of need,” Martin said.
“Saying yes, we’re here, we’re here to help you, you’re not alone.
“We might not be able to save the house but at least they know that we’re here, we’ll do as much as we can and you’re not left alone.
“You go into a situation where there’s carnage everywhere, chaos everywhere, but you need to keep a level head, know what you need to do and get on with the job.
“At the same time, you have to understand what the community is going through.” Having faced countless situations that most people would run from, Martin recalls a five-week effort to assist in the clean-up effort in Kalbarri in 2021, following the devastating landfall of Cyclone Seroja.
“Kalbarri – they got hammered, but we needed to get in there,” he said. “Even when they had community meetings, you’re there as well, you might be in the back but you’re there letting them know, ‘hey, we are here.’”
Asked how long he plans to keep up his emergency services work, Martin laughs. “You’ll have to ask the wife about that one,” he said.
“I’ll keep going as long as I can, whether I can keep going out in the field or work in the office. “You learn everything, and that’s something I do with the training, because there might be a time, they can’t get out there, but they can still be useful in the operations centre.
“I do it because I have pride in what I do and what the SES stands for. We’ve got to support each other.”