St Johns Ambulance Priory Conference

Friday 25 June 10
I want to also acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand and pay my respects to their elders past and present, and any other elders present today. Introduction Thank you, Stephen " and welcome to the 2010 National Priory Conference of St John Ambulance Australia. And, in particular I want to extend a warm welcome to all our interstate and international guests. You have come to one of the most exciting and one of the most liveable cities in the world and I want to encourage you all to get out and about while you are here and discover the magic of our city. A part of the landscape It is a privilege to be able to open the National Priory Conference this year and a perfect opportunity to acknowledge the incredible work St John Ambulance continues to do right across Australia. Make no mistake " Australia is a safer and more compassionate place because of the work you do in your communities, year in and year out. You are well and truly a part of the Australian landscape and few organisations are held in such high esteem and with such great affection as St John Ambulance. Indeed, if Dr Robert Roberston " one of St John’s earliest pioneers in Australia " was around today, I’m sure he would be very proud. Dr Robert Robertson For those of you who may not know, Dr Robertson was the first known person in Australia to have attempted St John Ambulance-type training. And he did so in Melbourne. Dr Robertson was a private practitioner from St Kilda who went on to become the Surgeon-Colonel of the Victorian Militia Ambulance Corps. In 1880, he gave the first of four public lectures on military first aid. The lecture created a fair bit of interest and, according to The Argus, was “well received” and attended by “a large audience”. Apparently, Robertson was fond of telling his audience that the ambulance drills being taught in England under the Order of St John of Jerusalem had ensured that: .. no accident could happen in the large centres of population without some competent person being forthcoming within the space of three minutes. Roberston was obviously a passionate and enthusiastic advocate for St John Ambulance and its no wonder that within two years of Roberston’s final lecture in 1881, a Victorian Centre of the St John Ambulance Association was established in Melbourne " and its work in Australia formally began. St John Ambulance today I’m sure Robertson would have been staggered at the size of the organisation today and the breadth of its work. The facts and figures tell a powerful story: St John now has more than 16,000 volunteers on its books and employs around 1900 staff And last year, the organisation issued a staggering 431,666 training certificates. In terms of the army of volunteers who provided first aid services at more than 18,000 events across the nation last year: Over 4,000 were juniors and cadets, and around 6000 were adult volunteers And those people worked more than 1,000,000 hours in the service of their communities. And in terms of providing care for some of our community’s most socially isolated people, 2,283 St John community care volunteers gave more than 193,000 hours of service last year. That is a magnificent effort. And in a really positive sign for St John Ambulance, 22.7 per cent of its membership is under the age of 18 and nearly 40 per cent under the age of 26. That is a great sign for an organisation that is not only renowned for its care and compassion, but also for its remarkable staying power. Victoria That care and compassion came to the fore in the aftermath of the Black Saturday disaster. Today I want to pay a special tribute to the men and women of St John Ambulance in Victoria who worked so hard to ease the suffering of those who lost so much in such a short time. I know that in the immediate aftermath of the fires, St John dispatched teams of volunteer first-aiders, doctors, paramedics and nurses to a number of locations. And I saw the work of these volunteers up close in Bendigo on the Saturday night, where they were providing immediate care and support to victims of the fires. I am also aware that at a few of these locations, St John volunteers were the only medical support available for quite some time. These people manned first aid posts, treated casualties, managed hospital transports along with Ambulance Victoria, and provided emotional support and reassurance to the victims of the fires. All up, 517 volunteers treated 1236 patients over a 49 day period in the most trying of circumstances. It was a truly Herculean effort. I am also aware that we were supported by around 200 St John volunteers who came to Victoria from around Australia at very short notice - and that close to another 400 interstate volunteers were mobilised and ready to travel if needed. From the first deployment of volunteers at the Mirboo North fires a week before Black Saturday, to the final withdrawal from Wilsons Promontory on the 20th of March, St John’s professionalism and commitment to the people of Victoria shone through. On behalf of the Victorian Government, I want to thank everyone at St John Ambulance for your hard work, for your care and compassion, and for being there when we needed you most. Conclusion I hope this conference is a productive and enjoyable one for you all. And I hope that St John Ambulance achieves its goals, that it ‘unifies its colours’, and continues to move towards its vision of ‘One St John’. It now gives me great pleasure to declare the 2010 National Priory Conference of St John Ambulance Australia officially open. Thank you.
 
web design melbourne