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During emergencies

In the event of an emergency, don't rely on someone to alert you to danger. It is essential to stay informed and be proactive.

If you have made a plan
Get your plan out and start to follow it. You have put a great deal of effort into creating this plan, and you most likely created your plan when you were calm and could think clearly. In the panic of an emergency, don’t second guess yourself - stick to your plan.
If you haven’t made a plan
You need to act immediately to protect yourself and your family. Ensure you have the Vic Emergency App that will give you information and speak to your neighbours so you can work together.

Stay informed

During emergencies, communication networks may be down. This includes mobile reception, electricity, and WiFi. This will restrict your access to crucial information. Therefore, always have multiple backup methods to stay informe

Emergency contacts and websites

For all emergencies - dial Triple Zero (000)

Organisation	Phone	Website
Emergencies - Police	000	www.police.vic.gov.au
Emergencies - Fire	000	www.cfa.vic.gov.au
Emergencies - Ambulance	000	www.ambulance.vic.gov.au
Agriculture Victoria	13 61 86	agriculture.vic.gov.au
Bureau of Meteorology (land weather and flood warnings)	1300 754 389	www.bom.gov.au
Country Fire Authority (CFA) - District 18	03 5036 2800	www.cfa.vic.gov.au
Families, Fairness and Housing	1300 475 170	services.dffh.vic.gov.au
Life Line	13 11 14	www.lifeline.org.au
Lower Murray Water (faults and emergencies)	1800 808 830	www.lmw.vic.gov.au
Nurse on Call	1300 606 024	www.healthdirect.gov.au/nurse-on-call
Poison Information	13 11 26	www.austin.org.au/poisons
Police station - Lake Boga	03 5037 2201	www.police.vic.gov.au
Police station - Manangatang	03 5035 1291	www.police.vic.gov.au
Police station - Nyah	03 5030 2435	www.police.vic.gov.au
Police station - Robinvale	03 5026 3002	www.police.vic.gov.au
Police station - Swan Hill	03 5036 1600	www.police.vic.gov.au
Powercor (service difficulties and faults)	13 24 12	www.powercor.com.au
Red Cross	1800 733 276	www.redcross.org.au
Regional Roads Victoria	13 37 78	regionalroads.vic.gov.au
State Emergency Services (SES)	13 25 00	www.ses.vic.gov.au
Swan Hill Rural City Council	03 5036 2333	www.swanhill.vic.gov.au
Swan Hill Rural City Council - After hours emergency	03 5036 0322	www.swanhill.vic.gov.au
Telstra (residential faults)	13 22 03	www.telstra.com.au
VicRoads	13 11 70	www.vicroads.vic.gov.au
VicTraffic	13 11 70	traffic.vicroads.vic.gov.au
VicEmergency	1800 226 226	emergency.vic.gov.au
Victorian Bushfire Information Line (SES)	1800 240 667	www.ses.vic.gov.au
Wildlife Rescue	1300 596 457	wildliferescue.net.au

Fire danger ratings

Fire danger ratings are declared by the Country Fire Authority (CFA). Council services may change on fire risk days. All Council services and facilities in high-risk areas will be suspended and/or closed on a declared Catastrophic fire risk day. On an Extreme fire risk day, Council services may be modified and changed. Find out more about Fire Danger Ratings and the Fire Danger Period.

Radio and TV

During emergencies, Victoria’s emergency broadcasters will provide information, including updates and community alerts, to help you to make decisions based on the advice of the emergency services.

You can get this information from any of Victoria's commercial radio stations, ABC local radio, a number of community stations and SkyNews TV.

These are outlined further below and a list of the coverage areas can be downloaded on the Emergency Management Victoria website.

Local radio

Use the ABC Radio website for the right ABC frequency at your place or while you’re travelling. You can also listen online or on the ABC Radio app.

ABC Mildura Swan Hill (102.1 FM)
3SH (1332 AM)
MIXX FM (107.7 FM)

TV

If necessary, emergency warnings will interrupt normal programming on the radio and TV.

SkyNews provides emergency information to their viewers through their;

24 hour TV channel
Digital channel including crawlers and alerts
SkyNews website
SMS alert service to SkyNews subscribers

Social media

For helpful information follow:

Telephone alerts and hotlines

Telephone alerts are sometimes used to provide the community with official warning information using the National Emergency Alert system.

You don’t need to sign up to receive telephone alerts.

Telephone alerts can send information to you by your landline (voice), or mobile phone (text) – either by address or by a specific geographic area.

Alerts will begin with “Emergency, Emergency” and will only be received if your landline and mobile phone (based on its billing address and/or your last known location) is within the defined area and has service.

Telephone Alerts are not used in all circumstances, and depends on the nature of the incident.

You should not wait to receive a Telephone Alert before you act.

Download the Vic Emergency App

VicEmergency is the central place access timely emergency information and warnings on all hazards, including fire, flood, storm, tsunami, earthquake, landslide and more.

Visit the VicEmergency website

You can download the VicEmergency app from the App Store or Google Play.

Neighbourhood Safer Places - Places of Last Resort

Council has designated the following Neighbourhood Safer Places:

Robinvale – Recreation Reserve, Latje Rd, Robinvale
Swan Hill – Showgrounds, Corner Stradbroke Avenue and McCallum St, Swan Hill

Neighbourhood Safer Places (NSPs) are a place of last resort when all other plans have failed.

They can provide some protection from direct flame and radiant heat during a fire but may still be subject to ember attack.

NSPs are NOT relief centres or places to relocate to when leaving early – there are limited facilities and no support or services are provided.

What is Council's role

The Municipal Emergency Management Plan (MEMP) is a multi-agency plan used during times of emergency. It is developed by the Municipal Emergency Management Planning Committee (MEMPC) which consist of Council staff, Community representatives and emergency response agency representatives and aligns with the State Emergency Management Plan (SEMP).

Council manages municipal resources and co-ordinates support for our community to deal with the effects of an emergency. This includes responding to and recovering from emergencies, such as:

Providing emergency relief to people affected by or responding to an emergency
Municipal help to agencies responding to and recovering from emergencies
Assessing the impact of an emergency
Recovery activities within our municipality, with the Department of Human Services

So we can carry out these emergency management duties, Council has a Municipal Emergency Management Group. During an emergency, the group will meet to decide what level of activity is needed. This group consists of: