WITH more than four decades’ service to the Westpac Rescue Helicopter up his sleeve, you would think Cliff Marsh would know the helicopter and its people inside out. But, as it turns out, even the familiar can sometimes be surprising.
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The organisation officially opened its new base at Lake Macquarie Airport at Marks Point on Friday – heralding in a new era 42 years to the day the helicopter started servicing the Hunter as a weekend operation in 1975.
And as a tribute to Mr Marsh, the service named its operation room in his honour.
“They kept it a bloody good secret. I had no idea,” Mr Marsh said.
“When I got up there to accept it, I got a bit choked up. What an honour.”
More than 100 people attended Friday’s ceremony, with dignitaries including NSW Ambulance commissioner Dominic Morgan, Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter Scot MacDonald, Swansea MP Yasmin Catley and a host of sponsors.
Westpac Rescue Helicopter chief executive Richard Jones said it was “remarkable” to see the change that has swept through the organisation over its history.
“We’re just thrilled that the community’s own rescue helicopter has evolved to what is now rated among the top aeromedical retrieval networks in the world,” he said.
“The level of care available to our community, 24-7, continues to get stronger.”
Mr Jones said the base was purpose-built and befitting of the organisation’s mission.
Dignitaries were given a tour of the new base, which has been in use since March, taking six months to build.
The base contains spacious living quarters for the crew, with a large hangar that separates the aircraft from engineering and maintenance. An aircraft can be launched in 10 minutes, Westpac Rescue said.
The former Broadmeadow base continues to be used in an administrative capacity.
Ambulance duty operations manager Adam Butt described the transfer to the Lake base as a “big milestone”.
“The last base we worked at out at Broadmeadow started off as a small base and it grew,” he said. “We tacked on more bits as we got funding, but this base is purposely designed for our workflow – from us getting the job, going through the operations to plan, getting in the aircraft, starting the aircraft and getting under way.”
Commissioner Morgan said it was a priority that everyone was able to receive emergency clinical care “no matter how remote or regional their location is”.
“When I reflect on the history of these organisations and their proud traditions with the community, to see what we’ve built today, together, is something truly unique,” he said.
