National Safety Council of Australia
Encyclopedia
The National Safety Council of Australia is a nonprofit organisation in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 promoting safety awareness and offering consulting, auditing and training services. For much of its life NCSA was a volunteer organisation concerned largely with accident prevention. In the 1980s is expanded rapidly to become a national search and rescue
Search and rescue
Search and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger.The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, mostly based upon terrain considerations...

 organisation until the financial collapse of its Victorian Division in 1989. It subsequently returned to being a small scale non-profit organisation promoting safety awareness and occupational health and safety training, consulting and auditing. NSCA host the National Safety Awards of Excellence and a variety of events for OHS professionals.

Early history

The National Safety Council of Australia was formed in Victoria in May 1927 from a coalition of 52 organisations concerned with safety. The idea was originally proposed by the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria
Royal Automobile Club of Victoria
The Royal Automobile Club of Victoria is a motoring club and mutual organisation, providing services such as roadside assistance, vehicle, home and contents insurance, personal and car loans, driving instruction, tourism services and home security products.The RACV runs a lifestyle club known as...

 to reduce road accidents, but was "extended to provide for greater safety of all classes of the public at work, on the road, and in the home". Member organisations included state government agencies, insurers, trade unions, city councils and other nonprofit organisations such as the Royal Life Saving Society Australia
Royal Life Saving Society Australia
Royal Life Saving Society Australia has been serving Australia for over 110 years and is the leading water safety, swimming and lifesaving education organisation in Australia. It is active all over Australia. Its branches, members, volunteers, trainers and lifesavers are found in almost all...

. Its scope initially focussed on road safety, sea safety and industrial safety.

Although formed as a company limited by guarantee, it was granted an exemption by the state Attorney-General
Attorney-General of Victoria (Australia)
The Attorney-General of Victoria is a ministry of the Government of Victoria with responsibility for the state's courts and tribunals. The Attorney General is a senior minister in the state government and the First Law Officer of the State....

 from using the word "Limited" in the name. It was also granted exemptions from lodging audited annual financial statements, changes to office bearers or lists of members. Such exemptions were generally available to companies whose purpose was charitable in nature.

In 1929 it began broadcasting weekly safety lectures on radio. Prominent speakers included the Chief Commissioner of the Victoria Police
Victoria Police
Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of Victoria, Australia. , the Victoria Police has over 12,190 sworn members, along with over 400 recruits, reservists and Protective Service Officers, and over 2,900 civilian staff across 393 police stations.-Early history:The Victoria Police...

, the chief officer of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade
Metropolitan Fire Brigade (Melbourne)
The Metropolitan Fire Brigade , also known as the Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board, provides firefighting, rescue, and hazardous material incident response services to the metropolitan area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia...

, the chairman of the Royal Life Saving Society
Royal Life Saving Society Australia
Royal Life Saving Society Australia has been serving Australia for over 110 years and is the leading water safety, swimming and lifesaving education organisation in Australia. It is active all over Australia. Its branches, members, volunteers, trainers and lifesavers are found in almost all...

 and the Chief Commissioner of the Victorian Railways
Victorian Railways
The Victorian Railways operated railways in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companies failed or defaulted, the Victorian Railways was established to take over their operations...

.

In August 1946 it held its first national safety convention in Adelaide, South Australia.

Expansion

From 1982 the NCSA expanded its activities nationally and began to include dealing with the consequences of accidents, including accident investigations and performing industrial rescue operations. This change was led largely by its new executive director John Friedrich
John Friedrich
Johann Friedrich Hohenberger OAM , also known as John Friedrich, was executive director of the National Safety Council of Australia during the 1980s. He the subject of Victoria's biggest fraud case and known as "Australia's greatest conman".-Early life and career:Hohenberger was a West German...

.

Friedrich joined NCSA in January 1977 as a safety engineer and was appointed executive director in 1982. At the time NCSA was largely run by volunteers. Following the Ash Wednesday fires
Ash Wednesday fires
The Ash Wednesday bushfires, known in South Australia as Ash Wednesday II, were a series of bushfires that occurred in south-eastern Australia on 16 February 1983. Within twelve hours, more than 180 fires fanned by winds of up to 110 km per hour caused widespread destruction across the states...

 in 1983, Friedrich saw the opportunity to transform NCSA into a search and rescue organisation. Over the subsequent six years, NCSA purchased a considerable amount of equipment and established a network of bases around Australia.

By 1989 it employed 430 people, who were known colloquially as "The Thunderbirds" after the television series of the same name
Thunderbirds (TV series)
Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...

, and had an annual operating budget of $90 million. It amassed an impressive array of equipment including ships, aircraft, helicopters, trained rescue dogs, satellite communications, parachute rescue teams and even a mini submarine
Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle
A Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle is a type of Deep Submergence Vehicle used for rescue of downed submarines and clandestine missions. While DSRV is the term most often used by the United States Navy other nations have different designations for their vehicles.- Chinese models :The People's...

. As well as search and rescue its staff were trained in fire fighting and many of its rescue helicopters were fitted with belly tanks for aerial firefighting
Aerial firefighting
Aerial firefighting is the use of aircraft and other aerial resources to combat wildfires. The types of aircraft used include fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. Smokejumpers and rappellers are also classified as aerial firefighters, delivered to the fire by parachute from a variety of fixed-wing...

.

NCSA operational personnel were given ranks and insignia equivalent to fire fighters. It regularly conducted joint training with emergency services, the Royal Australian Navy
Royal Australian Navy
The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...

 and Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
The Royal Australian Air Force is the air force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF was formed in March 1921. It continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps , which was formed on 22 October 1912. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th century's major conflicts...

. It provided search and rescue services for the Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
The Royal Australian Air Force is the air force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF was formed in March 1921. It continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps , which was formed on 22 October 1912. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th century's major conflicts...

, state and federal governments and industry. By the late 1980s, NCSA had more advanced search and rescue equipment than Australian Defence Force
Australian Defence Force
The Australian Defence Force is the military organisation responsible for the defence of Australia. It consists of the Royal Australian Navy , Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Force and a number of 'tri-service' units...

 and there were reports that personnel received weapons training.Some rescue personnel did receive safe handling of firearms training but were never armed. NCSA did apply to issue rifle
Rifle
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...

s and shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...

s to personnel based at Townsville
RAAF Base Townsville
RAAF Base Townsville is, along with RAAF Base Tindal and RAAF Base Darwin, one of northern Australia's primary defence installations. It is also Headquarters for No...

, Darwin
RAAF Base Darwin
RAAF Base Darwin is a Royal Australian Air Force base located in the city of Darwin, Northern Territory. The base shares its runway with Darwin International Airport.-History:...

 and Tindal
RAAF Base Tindal
RAAF Base Tindal is a Royal Australian Air Force air base located near the town of Katherine in the Northern Territory. The base is currently home to No...

 to protect themselves against crocodile
Crocodile
A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...

s but the application was rejected.
As a result, it was widely believed to be a government-backed or paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....

 organisation. The State Bank of Victoria
State Bank of Victoria
The State Bank of Victoria was a bank that existed from 1842 until 1990 when it was taken over by the Commonwealth Bank. It was owned by the State of Victoria....

 wrote in an internal memo that "NSCA's status (nonprofit-making and tax exempt) and its role as a provider of community service in the fields of health, safety and emergency services render it for practical purposes a quasi government body."

Bases

At its peak in 1989, NCSA operated out of the following locations either shared with other organisations or from purpose-built bases.
  • Victoria
    • Melbourne
      Melbourne
      Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

      • Corporate headquarters
      • Essendon Airport
        Essendon Airport
        Essendon Airport is located at Essendon, in Melbourne's northern suburbs, Victoria, Australia. It is located next to the Tullamarine Freeway on , from the Melbourne Central Business District and from Melbourne Airport.-History:...

      • Moorabbin Airport
        Moorabbin Airport
        Moorabbin Airport is a general aviation airport for light aircraft located in Mentone, Victoria, Australia. The airport grounds are treated as their own suburb, designated the postcode 3194. The airport opened in December 1949. Originally the intent was to name the airport "Mentone" but this was...

    • Portland
      Portland, Victoria
      The city of Portland is the oldest European settlement in what is now the state of Victoria, Australia. It is the main urban centre of the Shire of Glenelg. It is located on Portland Bay.-History:...

    • CFA Training College, Fiskville
    • Horsham
      Horsham, Victoria
      Horsham is the largest city by population and regional centre of the Wimmera region of Victoria, Australia and is approximately north-west of Melbourne via the Western Highway. At the 2006 census, Horsham had a population of 14,125. Horsham is in the federal Division of Mallee...

    • Benalla
      Benalla, Victoria
      Benalla is a city of just over 9,000 people located just off the Hume Freeway in north-eastern Victoria, Australia, about southwest of Wangaratta. Its Local Government Area is the Rural City of Benalla.- Overview :...

    • Morwell
      Morwell, Victoria
      -Transport:The main form of transport in Morwell is the automobile. The Princes Freeway now bypasses the town to the south while the old Princes Highway which once passed through east-west through its centre is now Princes Drive and Commercial Road. The highway connects Morwell with other...

    • Sale
      Sale, Victoria
      Sale is a city in the Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria. It is the seat of the Shire of Wellington as well as the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sale and the Anglican Diocese of Gippsland. It has a population of around 13,336, and is expected to reach a population of 14,000 soon...

    • Port Welshpool
      Port Welshpool, Victoria
      Port Welshpool is a town in the South Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. It is located 191km south-east of Melbourne, on Corner Inlet and in 2006 had a population of 191.-External links:* *...

  • New South Wales
    • Illawarra Regional Airport
      Illawarra Regional Airport
      Illawarra Regional Airport is an airport located 18 km southwest of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.-Airport features:...

    • Sydney
      Sydney
      Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

    • Newcastle
      Newcastle, New South Wales
      The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...

    • RAAF Base Williamtown
      RAAF Base Williamtown
      RAAF Base Williamtown is a Royal Australian Air Force base and headquarters to Australia's Tactical Fighter group. The base is located north of the coastal city of Newcastle, New South Wales in the Local Government Area of Port Stephens. The military base shares its runway facilities with...

  • South Australia
    • RAAF Base Edinburgh
      RAAF Base Edinburgh
      RAAF Base Edinburgh is located in Edinburgh, 25km north of the centre of Adelaide.It is primarily home to No 92 Wing's AP-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft that conduct surveillance operations throughout Australia's airspace....

  • Queensland
    • Coolangatta Airport
      Gold Coast Airport
      Gold Coast Airport, or Coolangatta Airport, is an Australian domestic and international airport on the Gold Coast and is located some south of Brisbane and 25 km south of Surfers Paradise. The entrance to the airport is situated in the suburb of Bilinga on the Gold Coast...

    • RAAF Base Townsville
      RAAF Base Townsville
      RAAF Base Townsville is, along with RAAF Base Tindal and RAAF Base Darwin, one of northern Australia's primary defence installations. It is also Headquarters for No...

  • Tasmania
    • Hobart
      Hobart
      Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...

    • Cambridge Aerodrome
      Cambridge Aerodrome
      Cambridge Aerodrome , also known as Cambridge Airport, is a minor airport serving Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is located only a few kilometres from the primary airport, Hobart International Airport....

  • Northern Territory
    • RAAF Base Darwin
      RAAF Base Darwin
      RAAF Base Darwin is a Royal Australian Air Force base located in the city of Darwin, Northern Territory. The base shares its runway with Darwin International Airport.-History:...

    • RAAF Base Tindal
      RAAF Base Tindal
      RAAF Base Tindal is a Royal Australian Air Force air base located near the town of Katherine in the Northern Territory. The base is currently home to No...


Ships

  • MV Blue Nabilla (1984–1990)


NCSA also had a fleet of unnamed rigid-hulled inflatable boat
Rigid-hulled inflatable boat
A rigid-hulled inflatable boat, or rigid-inflatable boat is a light-weight but high-performance and high-capacity boat constructed with a solid, shaped hull and flexible tubes at the gunwale. The design is stable and seaworthy...

s.

Aircraft

NSCA operated a fleet of aircraft and helicopetrs including the Beechcraft B200C Super King Air
Beechcraft Super King Air
The Beechcraft Super King Air family is part of a line of twin-turboprop aircraft produced by the Beech Aircraft Corporation . The King Air line comprises a number of model series that fall into two families: the Model 90 series, Model 100 series , Model 200 series and Model 300 series...

, GAF Nomad N-22B
GAF Nomad
The GAF Nomad is a twin-engine turboprop, high-winged, "short take off and landing" aircraft . It was designed and built by the Australian Government Aircraft Factories at Fishermens Bend, Melbourne. Major users of the design have included the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, the...

, Hughes 500D
MD Helicopters MD 500
The MD Helicopters MD 500 series is an American family of light utility civilian and military helicopters. The MD 500 was developed from the Hughes 500, a civilian version of the US Army's OH-6A Cayuse/Loach...

, Bell UH-1 Iroquois, Bell 205A
Bell 204/205
The Bell 204 and 205 are the civil versions of the ubiquitous UH-1 Iroquois single-engine military helicopters. They are type-certificated in the transport category and are used in a wide variety of applications, including crop dusting, cargo lifting, and one of its most common uses, aerial...

, Bell 212 and Bell 412
Bell 412
The Bell 412 is a utility helicopter manufactured by Bell Helicopter. It is a development of the Bell 212 model, the major difference being the composite four-blade main rotor.-Design and development:...

.

Collapse

On 21 December 1988, the Victorian Division of NCSA advised the Board that further information was required to complete current year's audit and would need to modify its audit reports for the previous three years. The board appointed chartered accountants to investigate the Division's accounting procedures. The accountants reported that many of the financial records were fraudulent.

There were also concerns about assets reported on the books as "containerised safety equipment" which had been used as surety
Surety
A surety or guarantee, in finance, is a promise by one party to assume responsibility for the debt obligation of a borrower if that borrower defaults...

 against multi-million dollar loans. The accountants discovered that most of the containers on the books did not exist. Those that did exist were of inferior quality, sold by the supplier for use as garden sheds, and empty.

A thorough investigation of finances revealed that the company was insolvent and owed $300 million to major Australian banks. The company was placed into liquidation and the liquidators sued the auditors in Australia's largest audit compensation claim. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is a multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Fiji, Asia, USA and the United Kingdom. Commonwealth Bank provides a variety of financial services including retail, business and institutional banking, funds management, superannuation, insurance,...

 sued Friedrich and other directors of the company.

Executive director John Friedrich resigned and went into hiding. A warrant was issued for his arrest on suspicion of fraud. A nationwide manhunt received near saturation media coverage. Friedrich was arrested in Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

 on 6 April 1989 and extradited in Victoria. He was initially charged with one count of obtaining financial advantage by deception. On 1 November he was charged on a further 91 counts of obtaining property by deception.

Friedrich attempted to suppress publication of details about the collapse but Supreme Court of Victoria ruled it was in the public interest.

Aftermath

The Victorian Commission for Corporate Affairs conducted an investigation into NCSA's finances and addressed the wider issue of exemptions for non-profit companies. It recommended that exemptions on reporting be dropped, although the exemption from using the word Limited in the title was retained. This was backed up by a major restructure of Australian corporate law which came into effect on 1 January 1991.

On 27 July 1991, John Friedrich was found dead on his farm near Sale, Victoria
Sale, Victoria
Sale is a city in the Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria. It is the seat of the Shire of Wellington as well as the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sale and the Anglican Diocese of Gippsland. It has a population of around 13,336, and is expected to reach a population of 14,000 soon...

 with a single gunshot to the head. His death was ruled to be suicide. It was discovered that he was not an Australian citizen. This caused considerable embarrassment to the Department of Defence which had given Friedrich a security clearance and almost unlimited access to RAAF bases. A subsequent investigation by the Department of Immigration found that Friedrich's real name was Johann Friedrich Hohenberger, a citizen of West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 who was wanted in that country on fraud charges.

Today

Today NCSA is a membership-based organisation promoting safety awareness and providing occupational safety and health
Occupational safety and health
Occupational safety and health is a cross-disciplinary area concerned with protecting the safety, health and welfare of people engaged in work or employment. The goal of all occupational safety and health programs is to foster a safe work environment...

 training, consulting and auditing. NSCA have offices throughout Australia, in major capital cities and regional locations such as Gladstone and Newcastle. The patron is Quentin Bryce
Quentin Bryce
Quentin Bryce, AC, CVO is the 25th and current Governor-General of Australia and former Governor of Queensland....

, Governor-General of Australia
Governor-General of Australia
The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia is the representative in Australia at federal/national level of the Australian monarch . He or she exercises the supreme executive power of the Commonwealth...

.

External links

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