After 45 years helping people across Victoria and southern NSW, Malcolm Barry (right) is just getting started. Photo: Narooma Rescue Squad – VRA Rescue NSW.
Malcolm Barry knows more about volunteering than most of us ever will.
It began when the then-Scout started volunteering with his local branch of the Victorian SES.
“I was only 16 and couldn’t go operational – I did all my training when I turned 18,” he said.
But what was initially set to be a six-month stint gave him a career (and community) lasting more than four decades.
After several years with Victoria’s SES, he moved to Balranald in south-west NSW, where he served as an SES controller for the region.
Malcolm said he then switched careers, spending nine years as a volunteer ambulance officer before he decided to formally train as a paramedic.
“I decided that I enjoyed doing it, so I might as well go and join the NSW Ambulance Service full-time,” he said.
“I then went to paramedic school in Sydney, did my probation in Albury, and then got stationed back out at Balranald.”
Malcolm’s most recent role is captain of the Narooma VRA squad, which recently honoured him for service across two states.
He received a 45-year National Medal clasp for his volunteer work, as well as a 15-year Long Service certificate for service to VRA Rescue NSW.
“That six months turned into 46 years,” he said.
“[There has been] everything: land-based rescue and land searches, road rescue, vertical rescue, large animal rescue.”
In his time on the job, he’s also overseen flood responses in south-west NSW, relocated dozens of snakes and even helped a cow that got its head stuck between two trees.
There have been changes over the years – Malcolm said modern rescues were increasingly high-tech.
“When I first started in Victoria with the SES, our vertical rescue stuff was really, really low-tech.”
“In today’s day and age, it would be deemed downright unsafe. … That’s what they had back then and that’s what I learned with.”
He said that even though “those bad luck jobs” were inevitable, emergency service members (be they paid positions or volunteer roles) came together.
“You get your traumatic ones … [and] you feel down for the families and your co-members, because they’ve had to see something traumatic.
“That’s the worst part of the day – that’s the awful part. But overall, there’s more positives than negatives, thank God.”
After reaching 46 years, Malcolm’s now eyeing off his next milestone: five full decades helping others.
Even though he retired as a paramedic in 2010, he said the continued work as a member of the Narooma VRA was incredibly rewarding.
“I couldn’t see my life without it,” he said.
“I think I’d go mad not doing it, because I just like doing that sort of stuff. … I’m going to go as long as I can.”
But what about those – including teens – who have a new year’s resolution to start volunteering? Malcom’s advice is simple: it’s worth doing.
“You’re not there for the ‘thank yous’ and the pats on the back and things like that,” he said.
“[It’s about] the smile on people’s faces when you finish the job and they’re feeling better than when you first met them.”
