National Emergency Medal

The National Emergency Medal is awarded to persons who rendered sustained or significant service during nationally-significant emergencies in Australia.

The National Emergency Medal Regulations 2011 were approved by Her Majesty The Queen in October 2011. The National Emergency Medal is administered by the Australian Honours and Awards Secretariat at Government House who provides secretariat support to the National Emergency Medal Committee.  The Governor-General may approve an award for:

• sustained service, on the recommendation of the Australian Honours and Awards Secretariat. Sustained service is awarded to those who have rendered sustained service in the declared nationally-significant emergency for the purpose of the Medal.

The Bushfires 2019-20 was declared a nationally-significant emergency for the purpose of the National Emergency Medal on 2 December 2020, per the National Emergency Medal (Bushfires 2019-20) Declaration 2020.

Service during this nationally significant emergency will be recognised through the clasp, ‘BUSHFIRES 19-20’. The National Emergency Medal Committee determined the following criteria:

• service must be in the protection of lives and property; or in the service of interests, that are not their own; in direct response to the emergency (including support that enables or facilitates the emergency response).
• the minimum duration of service that a person is required to have completed to qualify for sustained service is 5 days (whether consecutive or not) each involving service in direct response to the declared emergency during the qualifying period.

In April 2021 VCC Emergencies Ministry provided the Governor General a list of volunteers whom we believed satisfied the criteria above and in August 2022 we received a list back of personnel they approved.

Plans are underway to present these esteemed awards in October and November and will include a short Pre-Summer briefing. .

If you plan on attending one or more of these events as either a recipient or to congratulate those receiving the award please RSVP via the link below for the relevant event.

• Monday 17th October – Melbourne CBD 1-3:30. Melbourne Welsh Church. 320 Latrobe St. Melbourne. RSVP
• Wednesday 26th October – Geelong 11-1pm. Council Chamber. City Hall. 30 Gherimghap Street Geelong..  (Enter via Little Malop St). RSVP
• Thursday 3rd November – Warragul 11-1pm.  St Joseph’s Warragul, 3 Witton St, Warragul (Marian Room).  RSVP
• Tuesday 8th November – Sale 11-1pm. Sale Baptist Church.  Cnr Princess Hwy & Cobains Rd, Sale. RSVP
• Monday 14th November – Wodonga 2-4pm.  St. Johns Anglican Church Parish Hall.  225 Beechworth Road Wodonga 3690 .  RSVP
• Tuesday 15th November – Shepparton 11-1pm. Monsignor Jeffrey Hall behind St Brendans Church. 121 Knight St Shepparton.  RSVP