The mock rescue bus crash had 17 students and staff from Bombala High School being briefed to prepare them for the role of acting as patients in the surprise accident scenario.

They were joined by emergency service organisations Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW), NSW Police, NSW Ambulance and staff from Bombala Hospital who all collaborated in the exercise.

The training exercise that has been months in planning was a collaboration between Dr Emma Cunningham and Bombala FRNSW Acting Deputy Captain Malcolm Lavender.

The ANU medical students were visiting Bombala as part of their ‘rural week’ experience.

After the medical students arrived in town they had lunch at the Bombala RSL Club before being driven to the Bombala where they were greeted by Dr Cunningham who confronted them with the surprise mock emergency.

Local police started the exercise by arriving under lights and sirens, followed shortly after by Dr Cunningham and the ANU medical students who were briefed by Incident Commander, Lavender.

Fire fighter Anderson secured the scene as he simulated the fire attack and hosed the burning vehicle.

“Everyone that participated achieved their objectives for the day,” fire fighter Lavender said.

“We don’t want to go to these incidents, but we need to be prepared for them and this was such a unique opportunity to get all those resources together.

It is important that we train together and witness what other agencies go through too,” he said.

Dr Cunningham said the ‘rural week’ experience allowed all medical students to get a taste of rural life so that hopefully one day they might become rural doctors themselves.

“For this particular group of second year students, this is a brief interlude before they spend the entirety of 2017 in a rural area,” Dr Cunningham said.

“This was a great opportunity for a community like Bombala to leave a lasting impression on medical students,” she said.