CHELSEA SES veteran Ron Fitch made the 2022 Australia Day Honours List this year.
Mr Fitch was given the emergency services medal for his work with the SES. This year marks 30 years with the SES for Mr Fitch.
In a heartfelt post on the Chelsea SES Facebook page, Mr Fitch’s fellow SES members paid tribute to his tireless work. “Over Ron’s years at Chelsea, he has been involved in almost every deployment request throughout Victoria and interstate. Ron was deployed a number of times to assist with logistics following the Black Saturday bushfire tragedy, as well as major storm and flood events throughout the state. He spent many weeks in Mildura acting as divisional commander following major flooding in the area. He has also spent time in both NSW and SA after being deployed to assist with a number of major storm events in those states,” the SES said.
“After more than 15 years of lobbying and hard work, this year, Chelsea SES will be moving into their new unit headquarters, thanks to in excess of seven million dollars funding from the state government. Ron has been the driving force for this project, and it is a fantastic result for the unit, its members and of course the local community. As always, Ron continues to lead the Chelsea unit onto bigger and better times with the new LHQ development yet another path to navigate and conquer.
“Everyone at Chelsea SES is proud that Ron’s years of dedicated service to our community has been recognised through this honour, that is both deserved and in some ways overdue to recognise the sweat, time, energy, commitment, passion and sometimes heartache that Ron Fitch has given to both the Chelsea members, and the community that they serve so proudly. Congratulations Ron Fitch.”
Ron Fitch is a life member of the Victorian SES. In 2018 he was named Kingston’s outstanding citizen of the year.
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 2 Februay 2022