THE Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service team was in Gunnedah this week to touch base with the mining industry.
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Rescue helicopter staff inspected and checked coordinates of all mine site helipads.
The team also aimed at boosting the mines’ emergency response team members’ understanding of working around the aircraft.
Service community liaison officer Michael Wilson said the service worked very closely with the mining management team and staff in the Gunnedah basin on safety planning.
‘The mining industry provides such great support to the service and we do our best to ensure we can be there for them too,” Mr Wilson said.
The rescue helicopter also landed and worked with the teams at Whitehaven Coal, Boggabri Coal and Downer EDI.
Whitehaven Coal’s chief executive officer and managing director Paul Flynn said the service provided a “much valued operation” to the Gunnedah basin region.
“As a company, we match dollar-for-dollar the donations made by our staff to the service,” Mr Flynn said.
“Last year, this totalled nearly $100,000 which shows how much all of our employees value such an important service.”
The rescue helicopter undertakes more than 1000 missions each year and covers the Hunter, New England-North West, Central Coast and Mid-North Coast regions of NSW, including a population of 1.2 million people.