Hello to all, Tanea reporting from Katherine.

We all know the saying that “it never rains but always pours”…...Well! That’s how it is. I’m not referring to the weather in the literal sense, but now that it is coming in to the dry season business is sure picking up. Duties to do, fun meetings at hand and our long term goal of achieving the completion of our driving course is happening as we speak.

Last Thursday night we had Katherine Fire Services come on to centre to show us what they had in their Fire Truck.

We also had another exciting night with the Driving course as Craig had come down to assess our driving on road before we all could start our log books. There are some funny stories to tell on this occasion but I will leave it for another day.

I will say one thing though; sorry Amy, had to do it…. When you are driving at night in Katherine and you find an owl on the road, don’t swerve to hit it because that would be endangering others on the road, just drive straight over him and make sure there is plenty of clearance either side of the wheels so you don’t run him over. I can just imagine this poor owl sitting in the middle of the road shaking it’s head, looking rather dazed with a few ruffled tail feathers thinking to itself “it’s not safe anywhere these days” hahahaha.

Friday afternoon Steve and I caught up with Steve Peers visiting the station on his way through to Darwin. It was good to catch up with Steve and all his news. I love it when visitors drop by to say hello. Thanks for the phone call Gwyn, otherwise we would have missed out on catching up with Steve.

Friday night was also the finals of the Rugby match attended by Amy, Ron and Mitch. A big thank you for covering the duty guys so Steve and I could have a social night out instead. No Casualties to report even though it was the Finals. Winning team were Barbarians; it was a very close game with the final team getting in a touchdown and conversion right on the full time siren.

On the Saturday Katherine had a public duty at Katherine Research Farm for their open day and we put together a scenario for the public to show what Paramedics, Volunteers and Fire crew combined do and can do in situations that call for us.

For our scenario we had a Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) set up how the vehicles would be parked. We had one of our members made up to simulate the real injuries.

The Fire crew cut open the car with their heavy cutting tools and the vollies administered First Aid and extricated the Casualty with the assistance of the Paramedics.

Big thanks to Trevor, our Paramedic Officer who used a PA system to inform the public on what was happening and make them aware of First Aid courses and general information.

To the public it would have looked very realistic, but knowing that it was just a scenario I couldn’t help keep thinking that was all it was.

MVA happen a lot in and around Katherine in the dry season with tourists in abundance, no doubt anywhere in the Territory. I know it sounds off and it’s not a good thing but I felt lucky to be able to attend an MVA with the Paramedics that following Tuesday when I was driving for the crew to fill in my driving log books. To be able to see at hand in a real situation how everyone works together, you can’t get any more realistic then that.

Our Cadets are working hard on their Camp badge and Preliminary First aid books. At Cadets we had an influx of new members come along which makes the Monday night training a whole lot more involved and fun.

Most of all our new members will be completing their First Aid certificates on a one day course the day before ANZAC day, so they will all look good in their uniforms on parade. David Scaife has been taking then through their drill practice every Monday night; they all are great and will be great on the day. Go Katherine Cadets!

Cheers to all you happy readers out there, hope you have been having fun too.

Article by Tanea Rudder Katherine Division