Join the ESA

The ACT Emergency Services Agency (ESA) workforce is made up of over 1500 fulltime and volunteer personnel.

The ESA employs a range of people across many different emergency management roles.

The fulltime positions range from those on the frontline including intensive care paramedics and firefighters to various support functions like media, executive support, GIS mapping and training.

All vacancies within the ESA are advertised on the Jobs ACT website, jobs.act.gov.au.

Volunteering

Volunteers are a key part of the ACT Emergency Services Agency. They provide frontline response to emergencies such as bushfires, storms and floods.

Our volunteers also deliver community education to the ACT community on a range of hazards and how to prepare for them to reduce the impact on your family.

The volunteer positions include rural firefighters, state emergency service members, community education practitioners and community fire unit members.

ACT Fire & Rescue Community Fire Units are made up of residents in areas identified as at high risk to the threat of bushfire. CFU’s are equipped and trained to provide basic protection of their homes during a bushfire in their local area. CFU team members also engage with their local community by providing education in relation to keeping safe from fires and other hazards.

ACT Fire & Rescue Fire Museum volunteers are retired firefighters, professionals in the preservation of historical items and interested community members who join the ACT Fire Brigade Historical Society. Volunteers provide community education at events, the Canberra Show, motor vehicle exhibitions etc, as well as opening the Fire Museum at 14 Empire Circuit Forrest most Saturdays throughout the year. The museum can also be made available on other days for interested groups.

ACT Rural Fire Service is made up of volunteers who are members of one of nine different Brigades located throughout urban/rural interface areas of the ACT. ACTRFS firefighters are trained and equipped to respond to bush and grass fires in the Territory and also provide support to other emergency services in various emergency situations.

ACT State Emergency Service is made up of volunteers who are members of one of seven units located across the ACT. ACTSES members are trained and equipped to respond to storms and floods. ACTSES also provide support to other emergency services in various emergency situations.

Mapping and Planning Support (MAPS) was formed in 2005 in response to the 2003 Canberra fires. During those fires the ACT Emergency Services Agency (ESA) had a sophisticated mapping system in place but after two weeks of continuous operation the ESA ran out of people to operate the system. Only some heroic efforts by a couple of individuals kept the maps coming off the printers. Ironically, for its population size, Canberra has the highest concentration of GIS experts anywhere in Australia. But at the height of an emergency ESA had no way of knowing who and where they were. A protocol was needed for drawing upon that expertise at short notice.

The Mapping and Planning Support Group (MAPS) is a new volunteering model that enables emergency managers in the ACT and the surrounding region to reliably tap this valuable resource of willing and able experts.