Hall accepts emergency services honours

It was an Australia Day to remember for Secret Harbour’s Gordon Hall last Friday after he was recognised with a meritorious award for his contribution to emergency services.

Mr Hall collected the Emergency Services Medal after a stellar career helping the community in various roles in the WA State Emergency Serv-ice.

He first became a volunteer with the WA SES in late 1993 in the City of Swan, with his involvement including being a member of the incident management team for several searches and operations.

In 1995, Mr Hall got involved in the WA Volunteer Emergency Services — the predecessor of the SES Volunteers Association — later becoming a key figure in the major changes to WAVES, which saw it evolve into the association it is now.

Mr Hall said he was humbled to have been put forward for the award.

“Now I represent all SES volunteers in Australia nationally in the emergency management volunteer forum run out of Canberra,” he said. “We do a lot of advocating — some of the biggest pushes at the moment are to get more young people involved and improve our diversity.”

In the late 1990s, Mr Hall became the first SES volunteer to become a member of the Fire and Emergency Services Authority board and he later took up an appointment as the FESA regional director for the region covering the Goldfields, the Mid West and Midlands areas.

While he was regional director, Mr Hall was involved in several State and emergency management committees and played a key role in large-scale emergency and recovery operations.

Fast-forward more than a decade and Mr Hall was elected as SESVA president in 2013 before being elected as the inaugural vice-president of the board of directors for the National SES Volunteers Association.