Our Sydney Base

The Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter’s base is situated at Cape Banks, Botany Bay National Park, La Perouse, on the northern headland of Botany Bay.

This state of the art, purpose built operational facility which opened in 2006, is situated less than 200 metres from the coast giving the helicopter quick access to the coastal waters and cliffs, providing the most responsive service to the community of greater Sydney.

Cape Banks is at the heart of the Services’ primary mission requests, a significant proportion of which are within 10-15 minutes flight of the Base. The Service is one of the principal agents that respond to rock fishing incidents along the NSW coast line and around thirty percent of these missions occur within a 20 km radius of the Base.

The Service is available 7 days a week and is able to reach either the Royal National Park or Sydney Harbour within 6 minutes and our operational area stretches from the Central Coast in the north to Shoalhaven in the south.   Whilst we specialise in the coastal and marine environments we are regularly called upon to provide aviation rescue services inland, searching for missing bushwalkers, locating activated distress beacons and attending search and rescue missions on inland waterways.

Our Sydney base is state-of-the-art and has been specifically designed as an aviation rescue base.   Some of the facilities include:

• An Operations Room where the duty crew is based whilst they are on shift.   The room has a large communications hub allowing the rescue team to monitor radio communications from surf lifesaving services, council lifeguards, NSW Police, Marine Radio, the Government Radio Network, the Ambulance Service of NSW and Air Traffic Control;
• Ready Room where the various rescue and emergency care equipment is stored in readiness for the next rescue;
• Briefing Room that allows operations crews to prepare and plan form missions or training flights;
• Living and accommodation facilities including two kitchens and lounge and ten bedrooms;
• Maintenance and engineering facility.   We carry out all our own maintenance and engineering services on our aircraft on site;
• Hangarage for at least two large rescue helicopters; and
• Office facilities’, training room, board room and a large open area that allows for presentations to large groups.

Outside the building is large landing apron and to the south is an expansive grassed area for taxiing helicopters.

BASE VISITS

Our Base at La Perouse is open to the public and we welcome visitors from schools, community aid, friendship, seniors and disability groups. We provide a comprehensive tour of our facility and aircraft and a presentation by the duty crew offering preventative advice on safety around our cliffs and beaches.

Visits to the Base can be arranged by contacting the Service on (02) 9311 3499.