Anyone got any idea who owns the Wespac Helicopter Service

Which one Wombat. The Sydney one is owned by surf lifesaving australia and the biggest sponser is Westpac they gave them the orginal money in 1973 and have continued to sponser it since. Clubs NSW have also jumped on board with a lot of clubs on the coast from The Entrance to Sussex inlet raising money to keep it going. I have no idea who owns the ones up north or the one in Tassie and I don't think Victoria has one anymore because its too cold to go swimming ( just kidding) lack of finance I think was the problem.chezgo

hi wombat.       from what i can find out,we have two helicopter rescue services in queensland.               the racq careflight,    the racq kicks in a certain percent,then they have corporate sponsors  ( this is where the big dollars come from )  then it gets down to donations.  ( bingo, chook raffles ).               e.m.q.helicopter rescue.             queensland dept of community safety emergency management.       this service is a solely owned by qld govt.       they have three depots brisbane,townsville,and cairns

I believe Westpac is the major sponsor of the helicopter rescue service which is operated by the emergency services of the relevant state. They don't actually own the choppers or the operation thereof. I'd be interested to know if this has changed. Cheers Chris

Re Victoria, I don't believe SLSA have any choppers, most rescue work here is done by VicPol and Ambulance Victoria. Although VicPol are the first in line for rescue work as their choppers have a bigger load capacity.

Ambulance Victoria predominately runs Bell 412's under contract from Canadian Helicopter Corporation (CHC).

VicPol run a variety, although the main ones such as 495 are what used to be called Aerospatialle Dauphine's (Now owned by Lloyd).

we run at least two of the big buggers here (technical term that I'm sure those in the industry would understand) bloody huge noisy mongrel things that scare the bejabbers out of me at 3 in the morning when they land at the hospital to take the crook ones away apparently they are fully or mostly funded by wespac (a banking orginisation) but not owned by them, I stupidly thought they may be owned by government but paid for by donations and funding from private or public individuals but thats just making a short answer long, if you want the short answer then I'm buggered if I know!!!

Some of the rescue/evacuation choppers are owned by private companies who provide the aircraft and the pilot for the use of emergency services. Some are owned by the emergency services state bodies who also provide the pilot and crews. Westpac is the major sponsor. Each organisation which runs the machine does fundraising to keep them equipped. Some of the operators are The Ambulance Service, SES, Sea Rescue, Surf Life saving, and the Volunteer Fire Service in some states. It's a very expensive enterprise providing a vital service to the community. Cheers Chris