On the first afternoon of the AFAC Conference, we had the opportunity to visit the Fire & Rescue NSW USAR Training Complex.

A small drive out from town we were told but I suppose 45 km is a small drive for Sydney Siders. A toll on the M5 and we were soon at the complex.

They were lucky to obtain a warehouse for the training complex which allowed for all weather training in USAR, Vertical Rescue and Confined Space Rescue as well as a base and store for the USAR cache.

Noise is not a problem as it is located in the industrial area of Ingleburn. In fact weekends, it is almost a ghost town so no annoying the neighbours when training.

They have made a good use of containers to provide props for all aspects of USAR training. The best bit is that they have utilised the skills of the firefighters to produce these props.

It was a good opportunity to see whether our program is on track and from what we saw, we are not doing too bad and now also have some ideas for our training.