Peter Thomson has been employed by ORCA for twelve years.  He is a currently employed within the company as a Safety Officer and Senior Responder.

During his employment with ORCA Mr Thomson has attended approximately 1,000 Tier 1 oil spills in Victoria.  He has also participated as a responder to Tier 2/3 spills, including the Pacific Adventurer incident in Queensland where he worked as a beach cleanup supervisor.

Mr Thomson’s routine operations include responding to and assessing reports of oil spills and undertaking clean up operations and providing on-site support in the audit, servicing and repair of oil pollution equipment throughout Victoria on behalf of State and Federal government agencies and industry.

Mr Thomson has attended National Plan equipment operator training courses. He has attended incident control, management and leadership courses by external training providers and has also participated in a National Plan biennial exercise in Tasmania and State exercises in Victoria.

As a result of his attendance at oil spills as a Safety Officer and Senior Responder within the company Mr Thomson has a significant degree of experience in the operational use, servicing and repair of oil spill response equipment, including that held by AMSA, State authorities and industry.

Mr Thomson holds a range of qualifications and certificates that assist him perform his day-to-day activities on behalf of ORCA and ORCA clients. These include a Forklift Operator Certificate and Heavy Rigid Vehicle Licence.  Mr Thomson holds a Level 2 First Aid Certificate and is trained in a range of firefighting and tanker surveillance activities.

Mr Thomson lives in rural Victoria and is a volunteer member of the Country Fire Authority (CFA) and has attended a range of emergency management training courses to enhance his practical and management skills across a range of disciplines, including oil spill response operations.  He is an endorsed Level 2 Controller for the CFA.

During the Longford Gas Plant explosion in 1998 Mr Thomson was employed as the day shift Planning Officer on the Incident Management Team (IMT).

Peter is a knowledgeable and skilled Safety Officer and Senior Responder with significant practical knowledge and experience in the use of oil spill response equipment.  He is well qualified to provide support to ORCA clients in a range of activities, including response operations and equipment maintenance; this includes availability nationwide to provide support to government and industry agencies affected by a major oil spill.