Berrima District Rescue Squad commemorated its 21st Birthday on 18th April, 1998 with a day of celebration including the dedication of a new rescue vehicle and dinner at its rescue head quarters.
This squad like Bushwalkers Wilderness Rescue is a member squad of the NSW Volunteer Rescue Association Inc. (VRA). The VRA has over 70 member squads and is recognised by the NSW Government as a complimentary emergency service to the SES. These squads cover many diverse rescue areas from marine rescue to aerial reconnaissance and road rescue. The VRA has been called out for major emergencies right from its inception. Emergencies as varied as the Granville train smash to the Nyngan floods, the 1994 bushfires and the Newcastle earthquake.
Our speciality, as Bushwalkers Wilderness Rescue, is bush search and rescue while the main speciality of Berrima District Rescue Squad is road rescue. Outside the major metropolitan areas of NSW road accidents, while traumatic and requiring immediate rescue, are not common enough (thankfully) to justify a paid full time rescue service. Berrima is thus a "primary response" rescue unit unlike us who are designated as "secondary response". Throughout NSW "primary response" for rescue is designated for particular areas and types of rescue. In country areas this is sometimes the local SES but is often the