Canine urban search and rescue (USAR) teams are internationally recognised as an integral component of emergency response operations in natural disaster and terrorism emergencies. Large-scale emergencies, such as the response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, utilised over 350 canine search teams to find survivors in collapsed structures and impacted areas. In Australia, the development and utilisation of volunteer canine USAR and area search teams is emerging as a response capability being embraced on a national level by our emergency services.

In 2010, the NSW State Emergency Service (NSW SES) partnered with Fire & Rescue NSW (FRNSW) to develop a Canine USAR Unit to support the NSW USAR Taskforce. The NSW SES Canine Unit is one of two internationally accredited USAR Canine Units in Australia. Other volunteer canine USAR capabilities have been developed in Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria with varying interoperability arrangements in place with emergency services.

This paper follows the development of the NSW SES Canine Unit and its partnership arrangements with FRNSW, to provide a specialist trained and sustainable search capability of handlers and their dogs. It outlines the challenges emergency response encountered and lessons identified in the development of the capability, and looks to the future of specialist volunteers and their dogs working side by side with emergency services in supporting communities to respond to emergencies. 

In changing climatic and geo-political environments, where natural disasters and terrorist activities are predicted to increase in scale and frequency, this growth in canine search capability development and utilisation also heralds a maturity in Australia’s emergency response repertoire.