Sandringham Coast Guard is a busy outfit responding to an average of 10,000 phone calls a year.
Led by Commander Jennifer Newton, over 30 volunteers monitor three radio frequency bands over 15 stations, helping out thousands of boaters on the Victorian and Australian waters.
The job of a Coast Guard radio operator is not as easy as your usual phone call. There are two shifts from 0700 until 2200 in summer, or 2000 in winter, followed by overnight phone monitoring from home. Last year 619 vessels were assisted.
Volunteers also track vessels logged onto an offshore tracking system or a travelling app, called Safetrx – last year 2541 vessels were being monitored.
The volunteers range from the young university student wanting to do volunteer work, to newly retired professionals.
“When answering a radio call for assistance, we ask questions to gain all the information needed to locate the vessel. Often determining the location can be where the operator’s skill and knowledge is paramount. The people on board, the type of vessel, the current difficulty, where they are from, and contact details are all needed.”
“Once approved by the Water Police a suitable vessel is then dispatched to help the distressed vessel and the progress is monitored from the control centre,” Jennifer said.
She says apart from excellent navigation skills, you also need to have wide ranging knowledge in a variety of areas.
“Calls can range from boats needing more fuel to break downs, injured wildlife, or mothers wanting advice about whether it is safe to take babies out on a boat.
“Sometimes we get calls from people on a beach reporting a dangerous jet ski. The public know our number and rely on us to resolve their problems.”
Last year, the team volunteered 6706 hours, and responded to more than 17,000 radio calls.
Training to be a radio operator takes nine months and volunteers move within three tiers – Radio Operator, Radio Officer, and Duty Officer. The latter having the theory skills of the Skippers in Navigation and Search and Rescue.
Jennifer says being a radio operator is a very responsible position and a lot of people don’t realise the important work they do.
“The radios need to be monitored every day by a small team of volunteers, if no one is listening, no one will come.”
“I am incredibly proud of my flotilla and all the volunteer hours they put in, I just hope there is more awareness and appreciation of the work we do,” Jennifer said.
The Sandringham Flotilla, is also known as Coast Guard Melbourne, and is the coordination centre for marine incident response for Coastguard in Victoria.
The department acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the Traditional Custodians of the land and acknowledges and pays respect to their Elders, past and present.