A massive screen that can be used like a giant iPad where maps, images and graphs can be moved around by touching the surface with one hand.
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Another giant panel of screens the can be used in many different ways such as sections screening live footage from cameras on helicopters hovering over natural disaster areas.
They were just some of the state-of-the-art features showcased to members of the Illawarra Business Chamber when they were given a sneak peek inside the new SES State Headquarters on Wednesday night.
More than 100 businesspeople gathered at the former Australian Taxation Office building for the chamber’s monthly Business After Hours networking event. But it is still a month before the NSW HQ and control centre officially opens.
Related story: SES starts fitting out its new headquarters
SES Commissioner Mark Smethurst said staff started to move into the new 5,700m2 facility on the corner of Atchison and Burelli Streets on Monday last week.
He said the new building would be a big improvement because the two buildings they have recently been operating out of were sub-standard for what they needed to run the statewide operation.
“Particularly in terms of communications and command and control of events across the state and working with other emergency service organisations,” he said.
“We spent about $13.5 million refurbishing this facility too make it purpose built and what we need in the future. I have been reliably told from an IT perspective it is the most modern government building in NSW”.
Related story: New Wollongong state headquarters for NSW SES
Commissioner Smethurst said the NSW headquarters for the SES was now set to be in Wollongong for sometime and they won’t be moving again any time soon. “We are expecting to spend about $37 million over the next 12 year period to maintain the lease here”.
Commissioner Smethurst said there were 280 staff in the new building at the moment but at the highest operational level that will expand by another 150 people in the building.
The SES takes around 120,000 calls a year on average and last financial year it managed more than 230 major operations.
Related story: SES response to a windy Wollongong day 12 months ago
From now on all command and control of such events will be done from the new facility.
Commissioner Smethurst said the SES was presently looking at all its operations and how they might be improved.
There is also about to be a big recruitment drive for individual and corporate volunteers.
The SES presently has 8,200 volunteers but wants to increase that to dramatically to 20,000 within the next two years.
Illawarra Business Chamber members were provided information about corporate volunteering.