Two new paramedics, Thomas Groth and Nichola Heagney, have joined the ranks at the Cobar Ambulance Station.
Thomas, who was previously stationed at both Concord and Haberfield in Sydney, has been in Cobar since August last year while Nichola, who was last stationed in Taree, started in her new role in Cobar two weeks ago.
While their previous postings were more fast paced (both said they could attend up to nine jobs a day) the pair have found working in Cobar to be a much slower pace.
“Callouts out here are different to the city and the area is much wider to cover,” Thomas said.
Nichola said she enjoys being a paramedic which allows her to do a job that is both exciting and different everyday.
“It’s rewarding to be able to help people at what is sometimes their most vulnerable moments,” Nichola told The Cobar Weekly.
Thomas said he decided to head into the area of paramedicine during the last year of his University science degree.
“I wanted to put my knowledge into practice and paramedicine was the logical avenue to take to make that happen,” Thomas said.
Cobar Station Officer Stephen Dutton said both new staff members were fitting it really well with the Cobar crew.
“Both are permanent staff members and are a wonderful addition to the team,” Mr Dutton said.
“The Cobar station is now fully staffed.”
Neither of the new paramedics had been to Cobar before they took up the roles.
Nichola said she’d previously only travelled as far west as Nyngan and knew only that Cobar was a mining town.
“I’d also heard it had one of the only
Thai takeaways in the western sector,” she said.
Nichola said she was pleased to find it was a really friendly town.
Thomas admitted to knowing absolutely nothing about Cobar before he arrived.
“To be honest, I had never even heard of Cobar before being assigned here which seems ridiculous to me now,” he said.
