Transcript
Klaus Nannestad
Welcome to Talking Water with GMW ,where we discuss all things water. Today we are joined by leading Senior Constable George Crawford from Jamieson Police Station. George talks about some simple steps people visiting Lake Eildon and its surrounds can take to ensure their trip is a safe one. We have episodes on a range of topics, so be sure to check them out after this one.
Klaus Nannestad
Thanks for joining us George. Can you tell me a bit about how you ended up at Jamieson Place?
George Crawford
Yeah, thanks for having me along. I started policing in Melbourne like many of us do, especially for the experience. My goal was always to come out to regional areas and I found myself out towards Mansfield and in Mansfield's patches is the majority of Eildon's pondage actually - from a policing response site. And then during my time there, I started backfilling and filling in for the Jamieson area, and I absolutely fell in love with this little valley and I found myself and my family kind of spending more time out here from a work/recreational perspective. So it just made sense to head this direction.
Klaus Nannestad
And you were just saying before, George, that it's pretty busy all year round. So I assume in the summer a lot of the business is visitation to Lake Eildon?
George Crawford
Yeah, I would say so but I guess in our little valley we have a lot of visitation to the four-wheel drive tracks in and around the area. The rivers themselves are a bit of an interest to your fly fishing groups and similar. So we have a real array of different visitors. We have some that come to use the Eildon pondage for some power boating and similar and fishing on Eildon and others who head towards the river, which is one of my tendencies, I go into the river's a bit more, but it's just a nice area for everyone, there's all sorts of things to do.
Klaus Nannestad
And so people are visiting the area, particularly in and around Eildon, what are some of the things they can do just to prepare the trip and make sure it's a safe one?
George Crawford
I guess it doesn't matter whether you're heading into the mountains or, you know, some of the four-wheel drive tracks right near Eildon area. Just make sure you've got the appropriate recovery equipment. Phone reception isn't always the best. So my biggest sales pitch - people often think that I've got shares in PLBs but I can guarantee you I don't - is that people actually carry things like PLBs, which is a personal locating beacon. Some people may have heard them referred to with different terminology, but the personal locating beacon is the current equipment that people use, and it's a bit of a fail safe, you know, when you don't have that communication out. And I've seen it save lives, I get called out to several jobs and it saves absolute hours in a response time, if we've got a lat-long that's been sent through the satellites to our emergency coordination centers, and then it means I can go straight there and try and assist people with what the problem is.
Klaus Nannestad
And I imagine that's particularly important for Lake Eildon given the size of the storage that, you know, there's not always help nearby.
George Crawford
Yeah, and they're are really versatile bit of equipment, like whether it's the solo motorcycle riders who explore the different tracks around Eildon, whether you're on the water itself, on jet skis or on a boat. They're the size of a mobile phone - when I go hiking unfortunately, there's a lot of snakes out there as well that if you get bitten by a snake, even if you do have mobile reception, we actually encourage people, if they're wanting an emergency response, that they set that off as well as calling us because it corroborates and confirms their location.
Sometimes the way people describe it, 'oh, that's where Bill used to live' or 'that's where we used to go camping,' and some of the descriptions can be a little bit ambiguous, and by having that confirmation of the lat-long sent through to us makes a world of difference. and reduces response time immensely.
Some of the other things for preparation, the list is probably endless, but having the right equipment, making sure that your boat you get it serviced before you head out for the season, your life jackets are in good working order. I saw one the other day, ones with a little gas cylinders that had all corrosion around it. He wasn't aware of it and during my inspection I pointed it out to him and is able to get it rectified. So just checking that equipment yourselves and making sure that you do have all that right equipment, that's part of it. And whether it's a car or boat, you know, you're going into some remote areas, it's in your interest to make sure that working properly.
Klaus Nannestad
Yeah, it's always best to do the prep beforehand rather than wait to if something goes wrong.
George Crawford
Yeah. Yeah.
Klaus Nannestad
So what is the most common issues you see around your area, George?
George Crawford
I do get called out a lot to people ignoring the five knot zones and it's a little bit challenging. I am land based and so I'm relying on different agencies to assist, whether it be Fisheries, Maritime Safety or Transport Victoria. We have water police out on the water as well. But just going back to that five knot zone, Eildon is quite a large poundage and those five knot signs are there for the safety of our guests and residents, and if I look at, especially the Jamieson Arm, which is in my main patrol zone, there's only one small arm that is restricted to five knots and it's roughly from Peacheys Road, from memory, all the way down into the Jamieson Arm. And I've had some people complain, 'oh wait a minute, you know, I can safely go a lot faster than that.' But if you look at the size of Eildon there is so much area where you can enjoy those speeds and we have a lot of kayakers and swimmers down in our arm and there's a lot of hidden debris actually at the moment with all the rains and floods that we've had in recent months, that it's really not in your interest to be going too quick in that area because you're likely to do some damage to your vessel as well as potentially harm to yourself.
Klaus Nannestad
And at this time of year, with this getting into the warm weather, are some of the issues you see different? You mentioned snake bites before being a bit more of an issue, I assume that's something that increases during summer.
George Crawford
Yeah. Yeah. It's more of a seasonal concern. I don't usually worry about that trudging through the snow in the mountains behind me. But yeah, like I'm a kayaker, that's my enjoyment with the water, and I've been kayaking along and seeing the snakes on the top of the water crossing from one side of the river to the other. I've had a deer cross in front of me on the Upper Goulburn, which was a beautiful sight. So yeah, it's interesting what the different hazards can be actually at times.
Klaus Nannestad
Yeah, and you mentioned a bit before about how you work with a few different groups when it comes to dealing with things on the water. Can you tell me a bit about that and how the different agencies work together up your way?
George Crawford
Yeah, for those who aren't familiar, firstly, me being at Jamieson Police Station, I'm a single member station, which means that it's me, me and me. I do work alongside other neighboring police stations like Woods Point and Mansfield police members. But in saying that our resources are still relatively limited and we've got a very wide expanse of areas of control and we respond to, you know, domestics, car accidents, all sorts of issues, so water is just one aspect of it and there's some that are quite closely related. So we work closely with DEECA members, authorized officers from DEECA and Parks Vic. So quite often you'll see police patrolling alongside them: one, because their resources are probably as tight as ours are at times, and it's really good to work together, and they've got a wealth of knowledge in those different fields that we might not necessarily have. We might have that broad brush understanding, whereas working with some of those specialist areas really help us have a better understanding.
So as I said, we patrol quite regularly with the DEECA members or Parks members alongside some of those campgrounds that you'll see. For me it might breach up into the Goughs Bay area along Walshes Road ,or to be honest, around any of the foreshore around the Jamison area as well.
The other one I mentioned before was Maritime Safety, which is under Transport Victoria. They are one of the authorities on the water, so they do all the registration checks and licensing, making sure people are wearing their life jackets and I'll pair up with them occasionally to do a bit of a patrol. I'll join them on the boat and it's a great way to interact and do an intercept on the water, people are used to seeing me pull them over in a vehicle, they're not used to seeing you rock up with Maritime Safety and do an intercept on the water and breath test on the water. So, yes, we do do that. Fisheries have the luxury of working with Fisheries. Only about four days ago, down on Jamieson boat ramp, we were having a chat and doing some compliance checks along there.
So whether they are on the water or in their vehicle, they mix it up a bit and I'll try and tag along when I'm available, and again, they've got a wealth of knowledge in those areas which I particularly might not have.
Klaus Nannestad
Yeah, it's great, and it sounds like there's some really good relationships there because I know you hosted the Jamieson Emergency Services Expo earlier in the year and there was a great turn out to that. So it sounds like there's some really good connections there.
George Crawford
Yeah, we are extremely reliant on those kind of networking and connections and we've got a lot of local support and a lot of local volunteer agencies. One of the ones I forgot to mention actually is the Mansfield SES have multiple watercraft and I try and get out onto the water with them when I can. They've got a great bit of experience amongst that volunteer group and they've got some amazing equipment, one of their new rescue boats has thermal capabilities and similar. So if we're doing a search on the water, it's a fantastic asset to have, which really assists. And on a slight tangent, I'm one of the drone pilots for the north east region. So it's not uncommon to see me flying a drone in and around the foreshore of Eildon, whether I'm doing a search or some of it could be just training. The more practice I get looking for people in the water, the better I'm going to be when we actually need it. So it's a relatively new asset. So yeah, hopefully I'll get out there a bit this summer and get some practice in and not have to use it - not have to use it operationally, which would be the goal.
Klaus Nannestad
Yeah. And when you're out in the water with like Maritime Safety Victoria or the SES or Fisheries Victoria, what are some of the more common issues you see it?
George Crawford
To be honest, the key one would be life jackets. You know, people have got to remember that if you're on a vessel under 4.8, you've got to be wearing your jacket and you got to make sure that you've got enough life jackets for the number of occupants. It's the stuff that people are well aware of, they know what needs to happen, but we still say a few breaches in relation to that, and it's not worth it. It's a fairly dangerous activity at times. You can't help something knocking your boat or hitting something under your boat while you're moving. Not really at the era of the operator, but if you bump your head and end up in the water, the only thing that's really going to save you is that lifejacket.
Klaus Nannestad
Absolutely. And is there anything we haven't covered, George, from a safety perspective, that would be good for people to know?
George Crawford
Look, it sounds like a slight repeat of what I was saying, but make sure your torches are working, your phones are charged up, carry a little power bank if you need to for your phone. We've had a few rescues over the last couple of years where people have got down to one bar on their battery, on their mobile phones and then we lose communication and it makes it very hard.
So yeah, just the common sense stuff. People know what they need to do, it's just sitting back and actually devising a checklist or mentally going through a checklist.
Klaus Nannestad
Yeah. And what can people do if they see unsafe behavior around here in the summer?
George Crawford
Yeah, that's a really good point. If you see some behavior that is putting anyone in danger, 000 it. So call 000, I know that some people are a little bit hesitant at times to go or the emergency hasn't happened yet. Yeah, we'd like to try and prevent it from happening if possible. So if we've got the resources, and in a country area, we never know who's driving past at the time, so by calling it through 000, the radio operators can put it over the air and whoever is closest can go and investigate or at least change the behaviors if possible. And if we have to, we do our compliance aspect and give out a fine or similar, but it's more about the education: if we can stop people from doing it to make it safer, that's our goal.
The other aspect of it and the reality of it, some of the distances are quite great. You might not get police out there for some time and by the time they get out there, it's over. So from another aspect you bring it through to 000, but don't hesitate if it's safe to do so and you're not putting yourself at any risk to film, photograph it, everyone's carrying mobile phones these days, or I should say majority of people carrying mobile phones. So it's a great tool for people to capture a bit of evidence. If you see them go to a car, well there is a registration, we can follow it up later. If you happen to be close enough when you pull up, you might get the registration of the boat. They're all aspects that give us great avenues of inquiry for us to make a phone call and have a chat with them. It might be as simple as that or if it's a significant breach of safety or concern with that video evidence and similar, we might issue an infringement or take them to court just depending on the totality of the situation.
Klaus Nannestad
Yeah, well, fantastic. Thanks so much, George. Is there anything we haven't covered you'd like to add, or do you reckon that just about covers it?
George Crawford
No, I just I look forward to seeing people out there - and look, the majority of people are doing the right thing. We don't want to paint it doom and gloom. It is really good to see so many people out there enjoying it. A lot of new boat owners and similar getting used to the sport, getting used to their equipment. So we'd like them to be out there doing exactly those things, just that common sense approach, and we can all have fun this summer and enjoy it.