The Neighbours experience

November 2015, Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES) were invited to participate in filming for some upcoming blockbuster episodes of the “Neighbours” television series.

Given that the locale for the filming is the internationally famous “Ramsay Street”, the Whitehorse SES Unit was selected to participate as Ramsay Street is located in their area of responsibility.

Filming took place over parts of 9 days in December 2015 and January 2016 involving 6 Whitehorse SES unit members, a large rescue truck (Rescue 1) and a 4x4 vehicle.

The theme of the episodes was a rescue and recovery situation following an explosion at “Lassiters Hotel”. Persons were trapped and injured by collapsed pillars and debris. Advice was given by the VICSES personnel as to how best achieve safe extraction of the victims, and appropriate safety measures that would be undertaken in a real-life situation. As well as providing advice and specialised rescue equipment, SES volunteers were also involved as extras during the filming of various aspects of the scenes.

The episodes are being billed as “The biggest week of Neighbours ever and the biggest disaster to hit Ramsay Street”. There are many twists and turns in the plot coming up with some shock surprises as to who survives and who doesn’t, but you will have to watch the episodes next week to follow all the twists and turns of the plot.

The cast and crew of Neighbours were very welcoming to VICSES and incredibly hard working in managing the intricate filming demands that go with such a well-established and long running television series.

The episodes involving VICSES will be screened through most of next week commencing Monday April 4th , from 1830-1900 on Channel 11 (with an extended show on Tuesday April 5th from 1830-1930). Screening of the series in the United Kingdom will also take place over about the same period.