The Canberrans: Georgeina Whelan
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Nothing could have prepared Georgeina Whelan for the professional and personal challenges that came in 2020.
As the first female Commissioner of the ACT’s Emergency Service Agency, she was prepared to take over the position at the start what was going to be a busy summer. Was she prepared for an apocalyptic summer? Not quite.
Not that the seasoned former Australian Defence Force brigadier hasn’t had to deal with major crises in her 30-plus year career where she has specialised in military disaster response, including being the commanding officer of a field hospital in Banda Aceh in Indonesia following the Boxing Day Tsunami.
In Canberra, just a few months after assuming the top job, it appeared that the ACT was under attack.
First came the fires, then the smoke and then the floods and hail storm. Followed by the pandemic.
But amidst coordination the city’s responses to several natural disasters all in short succession, Georgeina was also confronting a challenge no parent would want to face. The serious heart condition of her youngest child, Andrew, who was born with Down Syndrome and who is now receiving palliative care.
Georgeina reflects on her leadership skills during the height of the crisis, how magnificently her team coped during the darkest days and hours, and what went through her mind when her son had an accident and was rushed to hospital literally at the height of the fire emergency.
She also has some advice for the community as we head into another unpredictable summer, and secretly hopes she is going to be bored out of her mind and able to read some novels….fingers crossed.
For the full podcast go here.
