Come along to our General Meeting in October and hear David Bacchus provide a presentation about South Australian Sea Rescue.
David has been a member of the South Australia Police, Water Operations Unit since 1995. As a Sergeant, David supervises one of three small specialist teams responding to search and rescue incidents above and below the water, across the State of South Australia.
Inspired by the support provided to Police by volunteers to conduct marine search and rescue, David applied for, and was granted a Churchill Fellowship in 2014 to study the training and management of volunteers in marine search and rescue. Travelling to the USA, Canada, the U.K. and France David was met with the same enthusiasm and dedication demonstrated by volunteers in Australia.
David continues to work closely with marine search volunteers across South Australia conducting search and rescue exercises and working collaboratively to respond to emergency situations. He was able to work with the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service to have the Fire Boat included as a search response vessel and worked directly with Surf Life Saving South Australia to expand their role in marine search and rescue in South Australia as an additional specialist resource to the South Australia Police.
Water operations, a multi-function South Australian police specialist unit with Special Tasks and Rescue (STAR) Group, was formed in 1995 by merging the underwater recovery section and the water police.