Fifteen years ago Anne Church was one of 19 people involved in the establishment of the Tongala Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).
Last month she was recognised by the organisation for attending her 1000th call-out and after doing the maths told The Riv the work had equated to about 60,000 hours of being “on call”.
Today she is one of just four people who are part of the organisation, which is quite often the first responder to emergency situations in the Tongala district.
Anne was honoured with the Tongala Citizen of the Year award, through the Campaspe Shire Council, at the shire hall ceremony on Wednesday.
In typical fashion, she brushed aside any praise and was more interested in promoting the organisation and just how big a difference people can make by being involved with the CERT organisation.
Born in north Fitzroy, she moved to Tongala 43 years ago when her daughter Kirsten Wright was young.
Kirsten and her younger brother, Adam, along with the youngest of Anne’s grandchildren Isobella, were at the ceremony on Australia Day.
Adam is a ferrier who lives in Echuca, and will soon be relocating to Tongala, while Kirsten is a school teacher at Echuca 208 Primary School.
Anne Church was very well known to the district’s population, involved in herd testing for many years.
She completed her high school education in Shepparton before settling in Tongala with husband Graham, a field officer for Nestle.
She ran the family farm, which she still owns, having the honour of running the last conventional milking shed in Australia from the Finlay Rd property.
Tongala’s CERT group started with funding from the Bendigo Bank, which helped with a grant for a response vehicle. All 19 initial members received high-level training from Ambulance Victoria, which Anne explained stood the group in good stead for the future.
Due to COVID complications, the CERT team has been even more heavily leaned on in recent times.
“We can be there, usually, in seven to 10 minutes, which is very important with the pressure on the ambulance service at the moment,” she said.
Anne has also spent time as a mentor at the Tongala Primary School, worked with Meals on Wheels and is always on hand as a volunteer, where she is needed.
“You just can’t get people to do something for nothing any more. None of the original 19 members from 15 years ago are still with us,” she said.
Her daughter is also a regular with the CERT team, on weekends.
"I got Kirsten her to join five years ago to help out,“ Anne said.
The pair, along with Karen Palmer and Ashley Mumford, make up the CERT team.
“Stanhope was just recently disbanded, the closest team to us is now at Nathalia,” she said.
“There are 19 left in Victoria. A lot of them are in remote access areas.”
Anne was inspired to get involved due to her father suffering from mini-strokes and the response time for an ambulance being 40 minutes for an ambulance.
“Now it’s only 15 minutes,” she said.