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Event puts SES to the test

While the Bayswater State Emergency Services team came out as the overall victor there were no losers in the 2015 Goldfields SES Challenge.

Held just east of Coolgardie at Lake Douglas on the weekend, the annual Goldfields SES Challenge attracts emergency services volunteers from across WA.

Challenge manager Angela MacQuibban said 100 volunteers from 10 teams attended this year's event which she described as a fantastic result.

Undertaking a variety of tasks ranging from operating a chainsaw, cliff rescues, four-wheel-drive driving and managing communications in an emergency, the teams competed for points under the watchful eye of qualified adjudicators.

Ms MacQuibban said working with other teams was a great way for the Kalgoorlie SES group to improve themselves.

"In Kalgoorlie we're a little isolated, so getting our team to work with other teams and exposing them to other duties that the SES is involved in is critical to our operation capacity," she said.

In a departure from last year's event, the 2015 Goldfields Challenge was held entirely at Lake Douglas as opposed to the 2014 event, which saw half of the competition's activities held at Cruickshank Arena in Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

Ms MacQuibban said the decision to hold the whole event at Lake Douglas was based on feedback from the visiting teams who wanted to experience operating in the bush.

"A lot of the teams are coming in from the metro area in Perth and they don't get a lot of exposure to the country areas and the work that we do out here," she said.

She also thanked the Norseman SES team for all their help in making the event a success.