The Blue Mountains Civil Defence Organisation came into being with the appointment of the first Local Controller, Colonel CA(Neil) Strachan, in February 1957. Strachan was an energetic leader who acted quickly to recruit to the key positions and establish links to other community' groups like the bush fire brigades and the service and sporting clubs. He was a pioneer of exercising, and the 1961 'O
peration Picnic ' (which simulated the evacuation of people from a nuclear strike on Sydney and their reception the Blue Mountains) was the first genuinely large-scale exercise conducted by any unit in the whole organisation in NSW. More than 800 people took part, the 700 'evacuees' being provided by the controllers of several Sydney units and travelling in their cars to Katoomba. On the way 'decontaminations' were performed, and when they arrived at their destination they were registered, fed and allocated to mock accommodation. Many other exercises followed, testing transport, welfare, signalling td headquarters arrangements and working on scenarios ranging from bush fires to a collision between a school bus and a low loader carrying nuclear weapon. The Civil Defence Bulletin of October 1963 judged Strachan's organisation to be among the “most consistently progressive and active" in the state. It was quick to connect to and educate its community, to use the local media outlets, to work out how to manage damage to water supply and other facilities and to be involved in bush fire support. When fires broke out, radio links were established, first aid was provided and welfare centres were set up to help evacuees. The organisation was a pioneer in many ways: in 1964 it appointed the first female Deputy Local Controller (Margery Anderson) in the state. Anderson eventually became the controller, after Strachan and his successor, Jack Scott. In the mid-1970s, when the SES and the bush fire organisation were merged, the controller was Phil Koperberg. Later controllers of note were David Samson, Ken Parsons, David Parsons and Costa Zakis. The Blue Mountains SES began with humble accommodation, using rooms in the council's offices, and the first vehicles were equally humble. An early rescue truck had part of the floor missing in the cab, and the unit's first station wagon was made by welding two wrecks together. Another truck had its motor blow up. Going into the 21st Century, the Unit has coordinated several major storm and bush fire support responses. Its biggest ever storm operation was in July 2011 when strong winds created more than 1,250 tasks within the city, mainly around Blackheath. These were completed within seven days with help from over 50 other SES units from across the State, the Rural Fire Service, Fire Rescue NSW and NSW Police Force. The unit has itself participated in several major out-of-area flood, storm and bush fire operations. It has also conducted many search operations in its own area. There have been numerous unusual demands on the NSW SES Blue Mountains Unit, the volunteers having been called upon to help with a submarine that had sunk in a lake, to deal with a woman who had lockjaw and to help a man who was convinced that he had an active volcano under his house. In 2023, due to the size and complexity of the Blue Mountains area, the Unit was split into two Units: "Blue Mountains West" based at Katoomba and "Blue Mountains East" based at Faulconbridge. Each Unit now has a Unit Commander: Michael Biber for West and Craig Shaw as Commander for East. Local Commander John Hughes OAM continues as the Cluster Commander for the two new Units and provides support for each Unit Commander.
