Australia Day Honours will be awarded to three members of Tasmania’s State Emergency Service (SES) today.
The Emergency Services Medal, which gives recognition to distinguished service by members of emergency services across Australia, will be presented to:
- Adrian Webster
- Rose-Anne Emmerton
- Graydon O’Halloran.
In expressing his congratulations for each of the recipients, Director Andrew Lea said:
“On behalf of the Tasmania State Emergency Service, I congratulate Adrian Webster, Rose-Anne Emmerton and Graydon O’Halloran for being recognised in the Australia Day Honours today.”
- Adrian Webster has been a volunteer for 39 years and is currently employed as an SES Regional Training Officer in Hobart. He is a highly experienced member and trainer, with considerable skills in all operational disciplines including road crash rescue, general rescue, storm response, roping and land search.
- Rose-Anne Emmerton has been a volunteer for 13 years and is currently Unit Manager of the Central Coast SES – one of only six female Unit Managers in the State. Rose-Anne is skilled across a vast range of situations and is an active member of the Northwest Incident Management Unit.
- Graydon O’Halloran has been a volunteer for 16 years, 10 of these as the Unit Manager, Launceston General Response Unit. Graydon has demonstrated a myriad of skills and competencies as a responding emergency volunteer.
“Collectively I thank Adrian, Rose-Anne and Graydon, for their continued commitment and support of Tasmania SES and the community,” said Director Lea.
“Their diligent and distinguished service make them each very worthy recipients of today’s award and honour.
“The level of professionalism and demonstrated behaviour of each of today’s recipients is commendable and they are an asset to the State Emergency Service.”
Adrian Webster
Adrian Webster commenced as a Tasmanian SES volunteer in June 1987 at the South Regional Headquarters Unit and has since been a member of South Hobart and Mt Nelson Fire Brigades. He has received the National Medal in recognition of his length of service and has been awarded his SES long service award for 30+ years of service.
Adrian has been an employee of Tasmania SES since 2004 and is currently the Regional Training Officer in Hobart. During this career he has trained volunteer units in all aspects of SES operational requirements. He has also supported operational incidents, trained other agency staff, and created efficient and manageable systems to support volunteers and SES training requirements.
Adrian and his considerable operational experience were deployed to Queensland in support of cyclone and flood response, coordinating SES Tasmanian volunteer teams. These deployments required significant management skills to ensure deployed SES teams were fully supported logistically and operationally.
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Rose-Anne Emmerton
Rose-Anne Emmerton joined as a volunteer member with the Central Coast SES Unit in November 2008. She was appointed as Deputy Unit Manager in August 2018 and Unit Manager in September 2020.
Rose-Anne is skilled in numerous operational situations, from general rescue, storm and flood to road crash rescue operations, which enabled her to become crew leader within the Unit.
She has deployed interstate twice assisting with cyclone Yasi and the Brisbane bush fires. Rose-Anne contributed a significant effort to the SES involvement to the 2016 Tasmanian bush fires and the conduct of Covid-19 welfare and compliance checking during the 2020 outbreak and lockdown along the North-West Coast.
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Graydon O’Halloran
Graydon O’Halloran joined as a volunteer member of the Northern SES in 2005 and is currently the Unit Manager, Launceston General Response Unit.
Graydon’s volunteer work has extended across the state, and he has attended many Search and Rescue operations (on land and water), storm and flood related incidents, serious and fatal crash responses, and COVID-19 compliance duties.