The following are UTS Outdoor Adventure Club’s Safety Contact (SC) Protocols
Safety contacts (SC) are required where there is no mobile reception and/or there is no easy access for emergency vehicles.
SCs are also required if you’ve never been to a location before.
Examples of where one is NOT required:
- Patrolled beaches
- Paved coastal walks e.g. Spit to Manly walk
- Suburban events e.g. training at a community center, bouldering at Lindfield Rocks
- Paid competitive events e.g. rogaines, adventure races, ocean swims.
Large-scale club events, like Megafest, would result in most Trip Leaders requiring a Safety Contact. In these circumstances, the committee will organise a designated Safety Contact in advance of the event.
Reminder: please send your trip plan to UTSOAC Safety Officer (not just Safety Contact)
Cc safety@utsoac.org.au in your trip plan email to participants (including any changes to these plans and your safe return) for their awareness. This is requested for all club trips and not just those requiring a safety contact. The reasons for this are twofold, one is as an additional set of eyes to make sure everyone returns safely, and also that we have a record in the event something happens that we can pass on to any responding services. If your trip is going to be in continuous reception, and is close to emergency responders, then you do not need a safety contact, however we do ask that you send the same information by email to safety, and then confirm after the trip that everything was ok. Things like local hikes, AS1 trips at Clovelly and such fall into this category. Please refer to your Trip Leader induction slides or contact safety@utsoac.org.au for any futher info.
Your nominated safety contact (SC) must be:
- A current/retired trip leader with access to posted trip booking information.
- Within mobile reception for the duration of your trip.
- Planning to have their full mental faculties at your trip’s finish time– not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
What to provide to your Safety Contact (SC):
See this link as a guideline – https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/safety/bushwalking-safety/think-before-you-trek/trip-intention-form#types-of-trip-intentions
- Details of all members in your group, including any known medical conditions.
- Start and finish times, dates and locations.
- Details of vehicles at your start and finish points, including registration numbers.
- Trip location, route/s, camping spots, key features or deviations from standard routes.
- The hex or UIN number of your Personal Locator Beacon (PLB).
- Login details for the tracking if using an inReach (or similar device)
- Details of the equipment you’ll be carrying.
The above info can be shared with your SC by including them in your email thread when planning trip logistics, by populating/downloading a spreadsheet from the website, or by filling in a form from the above link.
In your trip itinerary, nominate a finish time that makes it clear when to “Send for help.”
Please remember to cc safety@utsoac.org.au in your email thread for their awareness. This includes non-remote trips that do not require a SC.
What to do if you’re an SC and your party has not contacted you by their nominated time:
- Attempt to reach the leader, and if unsuccessful, reach out to seconders.
- Don’t call 000, contact NSW Police. They will contact other services as required. Have the info the trip leader provided to you ready i.e. participant contact details and vehicle info.
- E-mail the following committee members. If you know them and have their other contact details, reach out through those channels as well to ensure they are notified.
- president@utsoac.org.au
- vicepresident@utsoac.org.au
- safety@utsoac.org.au
- secretary@utsoac.org.au
If you have not received acknowledgement from any committee members within 24 hours, email all our subscribed Trip Leaders at oactrips@googlegroups.com, to the effect of the following:
“Trip X, led by Y and Z, did-not-return by their their nominated time [note: you’re not obligated to and are discouraged from sharing further info than necessary]. At 00:00 hours, I contacted the police and relevant committee members.”
Police contact information:
As most trips we run that require Safety Contacts are located in the Blue Mountains area, below are the contact details for the Police Area Command and the two 24-hour stations in the Blue Mountains region. For other locations, the link to the NSW Police Website for station lookup is provided.
- Blue Mountains PAC (Police Area Command): 02 4751 0299
- Katoomba Police Station: 02 4782 8199
- Springwood Police Station: 02 4751 0299
- To find contact information for a different area, go to https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/about_us/regions_commands_districts
