Former manager of the Moora local State Emergency Service (SES) branch Hugh Bryan said he received a phone call early last Monday morning from Colin Brown, district manager for the Midlands region based in Northam.

Mr Brown asked if anyone from the Moora unit would be able to assist.

“We were able to send two volunteers from Moora, Simon Broad and Shaun Dunford and Northam were able to send three – Neil White, Lyndan Walker and Graham Bond,” Mr Bryan said.

“The volunteers needed to be very fit and have had the necessary training in storm damage.”

The team attended 250 jobs during the week in the Melbourne suburb of Knox.

The volunteers assisted the Melbourne community with repairs to severe roof damage, temporary repairs to tiled roofs and damage to a large number of skylights.

“In some cases they dealt with collapsed ceilings and internal walls that buckled due to the amounts of heavy hail blocking roof waterways.

This was Melbourne’s worst hail storm in recorded history, dumping hail the size of lemons, which caused devastating damage.

FESA SES metropolitan district manager Grant Pipe said Knox residents were grateful SES volunteers travelled from as far as WA to help them get back on their feet.

“They were very grateful for assistance after extensive damage to their homes and one homeowner even baked our volunteers a cake to say thank you,” Mr Pipe said.

“WA SES volunteers worked 12-14 hour shifts and put in tremendous effort and skill to help those impacted by the ferocity of the storm.”

Mr Pipe thanked WA workplaces that agreed to release their staff at short notice to allow the volunteers to be deployed for SES duties.

The WA volunteers apart from Moora and Northam, came from Rockingham, Murray, Collie, Armadale, Bunbury, North Shore, Manjimup, Canning, Stirling, Bassendean, Gosnells, Melville, Kalamunda, and Wanneroo/Joondalup.

The volunteers arrived back in Perth after their five-day deployment last Saturday.

Three out of the five volunteers from the Midlands region who put their hand-up to go to Victoria, also volunteered their services to go to Brisbane to represent WA in last year’s National Disaster Rescue Team.