The Community’s Own Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service proudly provides emergency aeromedical services 24-7 for the people of Northern NSW, including search, rescue and inter-hospital transfers.We have operated the Hunter service since 1975, New England North West since 2000 and commenced operations from Lismore in April 2017. Prior to us commencing operations from our new Lismore Base, the Lismore Service was operated by the Northern Region SLSA Helicopter Rescue Service Pty Ltd (Northern SLSA). In order to tell the full history of the Westpac Rescue Helicopters in Northern NSW the below timeline uses an *asterisk to denote the milestones achieved by Northern SLSA prior to 2017.Today four AW139 helicopters operate from three bases at Newcastle, Tamworth and Lismore, servicing 1.5 million people from the Hawkesbury River, north to the Queensland border and an experienced operational team are on call and ready to respond.From flights for babies who are just moments old, through to people requiring specialist medical treatment or trauma assistance, search and rescues in the bush or out at sea and winch extractions from tough terrain. Each mission we fly is only made possible because of the generosity from our community.
