By Laura Michell
For more than a decade, Gary Doorbar had dedicated his time to helping the community in its time of need.
The Whittlesea State Emergency Service unit controller’s contribution to community and the Victoria State Emergency Service has been recognised, with Mr Doorbar receiving an Emergency Service Medal as part of this year’s Australia Day honours.
Mr Doorbar joined the Broadmeadows SES unit 13 years ago, before moving to the Whittlesea unit in 2014.
He said he enjoyed the “sense of community, camaraderie and friendship” of the Whittlesea unit.
Mr Doorbar helped grow the Whittlesea unit from 10 members to a group of more than 90 volunteers.
He said that while he is proud to receive an Emergency Services Medal, he wanted to recognise the contributions of the entire unit.
“We have a great team at Whittlesea,” he said.
“I would like to acknowledge the people who have helped me achieve this medal. It is not something you can achieve unless you have other people behind you.”
Mr Doorbar said he had been involved in many different emergencies over the years, but the one that stood out the most was the search for missing teenager William Callaghan at Mt Disappointment in June last year.
“We co-ordinated the search. We had a couple of hundred volunteers over the three days.”
