By Olivia Schoenauer
After a brief hiatus, Canungra’s Local Ambulance Committee (LAC) has reformed.
Local ambulance committees are an integral part of the Queensland Ambulance Service, advocating community engagement, fundraising for vital aid and delivering critical education programs to the community and staff.
The committee is built on community spirit and devotion, with the team entirely comprised of volunteers.
Former Scenic Rim Councillor and LAC member Virginia West says serving on the committee was highly rewarding.
“It was just very important for our local community,” she said,.
Canungra’s local ambulance committee was disbanded in late 2024 due to limited membership.
Prior to the committee’s dissolution, it fundraised for crucial emergency equipment for the ambulance service and surrounding community sites, along with hosting educational sessions for the community.
Virginia reflected on helping to provide essential equipment for the community and ambulance service, including defibrillators.
“It was lovely for us as a committee to be able to buy those machines,” she said.
Canungra Station’s Acting Officer in Charge, Nick Coombes, said the motive for reforming the Canungra committee was to drive community engagement.
“We’re more than just emergency services. We’re also about education and empowering people within the community,” he said.
Nick hopes to see the new local ambulance committee provide the community with the knowledge to give them a more empowered leadership role within the community.
“What I want to do at the end of the day is reduce health illiteracy and health equity within rural communities,” Nick said.
Nick believes the local ambulance committee can help motivate these goals for the community.
“We can try and change and become something that we want for the community,” he shared.
The new Canungra LAC committee members are Bec Cryer (President), Jean Comley (Vice President), Jen Rutherford (Secretary), Paul Kennedy (Treasurer) and Graeme Auger.
