SARDA - Queensland News

On the road again...

K9 Squizz and handler Melody Callahan head to Victoria for a four day training weekend 5-8 April 2013 with the Victorian SARDA team. They are going for some intensive work with Julie and Andrew Cowan so that they are ready to sit their assessments later in the year. We wish them safe travels and great training!

New Zealand Trainers come out March 9-10 2013

A huge thank you goes out to Brenda Woolley and Janelle Mackie from New Zealand! These ladies came over and ran a weekend workshop with all the Qld USAR K9 handlers at the QCESA site in Brisbane. They have so much knowledge and experience - it was fantastic. 

Being able to work with very experienced handlers that have FIRST HAND knowledge of what it is like when a disaster hits was invaluable. The lessons learned and shared with us were really useful. 

Thanks ladies for coming over and spending time with us here in Queensland!!

Bunnings Fundraising BBQ

We held a Bunnings BBQ on the 21st of October at the Burleigh Bunnings from 9:00am to 3:30pm. It was a long hot day with only three of us there the entire day. A huge thank you goes out to Ted Anderberg and Sean Callahan from coming along and sharing part of the work load for us! 

THANK YOU to Tallebudgera State School

The QLD SARDA team wants to extend a huge thank you to Tallebudgera State School for allowing us to train on the school grounds. It's a great place to train with wonderful hiding places (the groundsman has just shown us a few more options!) and heaps of distractions for our dogs. We could not train our dogs to do what they do without places like Tallebudgera State School. 

August 2012

SARDA Qld member Melody Waltz Callahan and SAR Labrador - Hershey completed a USAR Globex exercise with Queensland Fire & Rescue Service (QFRS). Melody and Hershey were assigned to the Alpha Team and went wherever the team went over the three day exercise. 

It was an amazing opportunity to participate in this kind of mock deployment. The team got to be part of so many things: helping build the Base of Operations, being part of the initial site reconissance team, searching for trapped casualties, sleeping in tents, experiencing field showers, eating MREs and working 12 hr shifts. The team was put under all sorts of stressful situations including one that challenged paramedics to 'mend' Hershey after a mock accident. Hershey was a model patient and the exercise was so real that other members of the Alpha team came off the rubble pile to check that Hershey was OK.

The USAR Task Force members treated the K9 team like they had always been a part of the Task Force. Hershey received heaps of rubs and pats (which he adored) and Melody was asked all sorts of questions about scent detection dogs and rescue work.

All in all it was a fantastic experience and one the Qld K9 teams hope to participate in again.

July 2012

Grill'd Robina awards SARDA Qld with $300. We send a huge thank you to the Robina Grill'd and their customers!

When we found out about the Grill’d Local Matters donation programme at Grill'd Robina, we put our name in to see if we qualified to participate. Every month, Grill’d Robina donates $500 to local groups by asking their customers to decide who the money goes to.
 
When customers buy a burger, they will receive a token to put into one of three jars representing different groups. Whoever has the most tokens at the end of the month receives $300. The other two groups receive $100 each.

March 2012 

SARDA Member Emily Trace and K9 Bravo took part in a QLD Fire & Rescue Service (QFRS) deployment exercise. The exercise was to simulate a full deployment from flying with the RAAF from Amberley to a location (which was Fort Lytton via Brisbane Airport). This was an exciting opportunity for Emily and Bravo as from the Canine Team perspective it was an opportunity to participate in the operation of a USAR Team.

After arriving at Station 50 and packing their bags, getting the vet check, boarding a bus to the airport and actually getting on board the plane - the exercise was called off. There was some extreme weather heading for northern Queensland and many of the Task Force members were recalled to their home stations. 

While the exercise did not go as planned - even getting to go through the initial stages of a deployment process was a valuable learning exercise for the K9 team. And rumor has it the Task Force members all enjoyed the odd happy lick from Bravo!

The QLD SARDA team is looking forward to future exercises with the QFRS Task Force.