During Kerrie Bayne’s 30 years working in the Department, she has raised her three children, made lifelong friendships, and seen a significant increase in the number of women working in emergency response.
In addition to her everyday role in administration support, she has also maintained an emergency role where she coordinates staff resources during emergencies including bushfire, flood and storm events.
With both roles focused around helping others, people are at the heart of everything for Kerrie.
Kerrie says she has seen a significant increase in the number of women working in emergency response.
“In the past 10 years I’ve definitely seen an increase in the number of women working as project firefighters, and a good balance of both male and female staff within our incident control teams during emergencies.”
As part of her emergency role, Kerrie has taken up opportunities to go on deployment across Victoria and interstate to support emergency response efforts.
“I have done interstate deployments for bushfires in Nowra in New South Wales, Kangaroo Island in South Australia, and all over Victoria.”
Kerrie has made lifelong friendships as a result of working in emergency response. She recently reunited with a friend on deployment who she worked with during the 2007 Kangaroo Island bushfires.
“Working in emergency response is a great way to make new friendships as you get the unique opportunity to work closely with a whole range of people you wouldn’t ordinarily come across in your day-to-day role.”
Most recently, Kerrie has been assisting with staff resourcing for the 13 February 2024 storm event in south Gippsland, including mentoring others to take on the vital role of staff resourcing.
“Coordinating people during times of emergency is often challenging, but highly rewarding. Therefore, I know it’s important that I share my knowledge with others now so they can be confident stepping into the resources role in the future.”
