Australian Capital Territory Emergency Services Agency
government agency of the Australian Capital Territory, Australia
The Australian Capital Territory Emergency Services Agency (ACT ESA) was established by the Emergencies Act 2004 (ACT), which came into effect on 1 July 2004. The mission of the ACT ESA is to protect and preserve life, property and the environment in the ACT.
The ACT Emergency Services Agency (ESA) is the ACT Government organisation charged with providing emergency management services to the Canberra community. The ESA Mission is “We work together to care and protect through cohesive operations, collaborative management and a unified executive”.
The ESA workforce profile includes over 2500 full time and volunteer personnel.
Structure
The Commissioner, ESA reports to Director-General of the Justice & Community Safety Directorate (JACS), who is responsible to the Minister for Police and Emergency Services. The ACT ESA comprises: four emergency service agencies and several support areas, including: People and Culture, Governance and Logistics, Risk & Planning Services, Emergency Media and Broadcasting Services. The four operational agencies are:
ACT Ambulance Service
ACT Fire & Rescue
ACT Rural Fire Service
ACT State Emergency Service
Commissioners
2003–2006 Peter Dunn AO
2006–2009 Gregor Manson
2009 David Foot ASM (Acting)
2010–2013 Mark Crosweller AFSM
2013–2019 Dominic Lane AFSM
2019–2023 Georgeina Whelan AM, CSC and Bar
2024–current Wayne Phillips
Budget
History
1993–2004: Emergency Services Bureau
Prior to 1 July 2004, emergency services in the ACT were delivered by the Emergency Services Bureau, an agency of the ACT Department of Justice and Community Safety.
2004–2006: Emergency Services Authority
The Emergencies Act 2004 (ACT) established the ESA as a statutory authority.
2006–present: Emergency Services Agency
In the 2006–07 Australian Capital Territory budget, the ACT Government announced that the ESA would again be subsumed by the ACT Department of Justice and Community Safety, effective 1 July 2006.
See also
ACT Ambulance Service
ACT Rural Fire Service
ACT Fire & Rescue
Gregor Manson, former ESA Commissioner
Peter Dunn, former ESA Commissioner
National Council for Fire & Emergency Services
References
Emergencies Act 2004 (ACT)
ACT ESA Annual Report 2004/05
ACT ESA Annual Report 2005/06
McLeod, Ron.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Australian Capital Territory Emergency Services Agency” as government agency of the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as government agency of the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4823928. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2004, 2003, 2006 and 2009.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
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Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
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- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Australian Capital Territory Emergency Services Agency” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.