Great Southern’s new natural hazards district officer brings wealth of emergency services experience

Bringing a wealth of emergency services experience to his new home city, former pilot Jono Boswell has this week started as Albany’s new natural hazards district officer.

Based in the Department of Fire and Emergency Services’ Albany office, Mr Boswell comes to the region from a similar posting in the Mid West-Gascoyne.

He is one of a dozen natural hazards district officers in WA and is involved in the operational logistics that involve the SES in events of storm damage, land searches and bushfires.

A volunteer since 1992, Mr Boswell has been involved as an SES member in searches through the Stirling Range and Porongurup Range national parks.

He officially started in the role on Monday and said the Great Southern region was a major drawcard for him.

“I have been a volunteer for 30 years and I’ve maintained that through several States,” Mr Boswell said.

“It has always been a passion of mine and after I had a career as a pilot, I thought ‘why not do this?’

“I moved down to be closer to family but I’ve also been in the area before for searches and I love bushwalking and getting out and about, so I’m looking forward to that.”

Mr Boswell said his role included helping co-ordinate land searches, responding to storm damage and assisting with vertical rescues across the Great Southern.

“I’ll be looking after the SES and VFES units, providing training for them and, when operations kick off, supporting them,” he said.

“All volunteer organisations are suffering with the lack of volunteers in this time.

“A key strategy is how to most effectively use the vollies we have and target and recruit more from a wider variety of people that we haven’t got to before.

“The other thing is developing our training capacity and capability in the region.”