South Australian State Emergency Service
volunteer emergency service organisation in South Australia, Australia
The South Australian State Emergency Service (SASES, commonly known as the SES) is the South Australian branch of the State Emergency Service, a partner of the Australian Council of State Emergency Services (ACSES). The agency, founded in 1962, is a volunteer-based civil defence organisation that prepares for and responds to man-made and natural disasters within the state. It receives, on average, 10,000 calls for assistance per year. The SASES is a separate entity, independent of other state SES organisations, and reports to the South Australian Minister for Emergency Services. The service is funded by a levy imposed on every household in South Australia, and is currently led by Chief Officer Chris Beattie with assistance from the South Australian Fire and Emergency Services Commission (SAFECOM).
History
Organisational history
1962 – Founded the Civil Defence Organisation within the state government, headquartered at Thebarton's police barracks, led by Ron Nichols. Uniform initially dark blue, later changed to white.
1974 – Name of the organisation changed to South Australia State Emergency Service.
1983 – Introduction of the currently used orange overalls volunteer uniform.
1984 – Brian Lancaster made chief officer.
The public source identifies “South Australian State Emergency Service” as volunteer emergency service organisation in South Australia, Australia. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around South, Australian and State.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q56395948. VIAF identifies the subject as 123675810. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1962, 1974, 1983 and 1984.
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This entry incorporates text from “South Australian State Emergency Service” 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.