A call would come in from the Communication Centre at St John to the dispatcher. Through several phone calls, all the relevant information would then be passed onto the volunteer ambulance crew.

In a time critical world, the communications centre now uses the Spectrum teleconference system and speak directly to the ambulance officers. As one dispatcher said dispatchers had received their redundancy notice.

A very special thank you dinner was recently held to acknowledge and thank the 30 dispatchers and to recognise the important role they and their partners had played in providing a service to the community.

Having to provide a 24 hour service, dispatchers and their families adapted to keeping the phone free, providing dressing gowns for those middle of the night calls and keeping everyone calm when situations became very stressful. Many funny and tragic stories could be recalled.

Dirk Sundley, from Country Ambulance Services and Sally Gifford, Chairperson of the Chittering Gingin Sub Centre, presented each dispatcher with a certificate of appreciation, a St John key ring and trees donated by Chitna Trees.

In a night of reminiscing, Vee Cheriton, spoke of the history of the sub centre, Vicki Humphries told of how appreciative the ambulance officers were of the dispatchers, George Gifford shared a poem he had written for the occasion and Sally Gifford, paid tribute to the dispatch coordinators - an unenviable task of phoning around to organise dispatchers each month.

Although this maybe the end of one era, many of the retiring dispatchers want to keep supporting the sub centre and the organisation is going to form a group in the near future, so that very important support can continue.

Photos: Top - Sharon Martin, dispatch coordinator and Sally Gifford, Sub Centre Chair person cutting the cake. Bottom - Sharon Martin, Donna Cocking dispatched ambulances since 1991, Dirk Sundley, Helen Martin, ambulance dispatcher.