National Safety Council of Australia  The National Safety Council of Australia is a nonprofit organisation in Australia promoting safety awareness and offering consulting, auditing and training services. For much of its life NSCA was a volunteer organisation concerned largely with accident prevention. In the 1980s is expanded rapidly to become a national search and rescue organisation until the financial collapse of its Victorian Division in 1989. It subsequently returned to being a small scale non-profit organisation promoting safety awareness and occupational health and safety training, consulting and auditing. NSCA host the National Safety Awards of Excellence and a variety of events for OHS professionals. The National Safety Council of Australia was formed in Victoria in May 1927 from a coalition of 52 organisations concerned with safety. The idea was originally proposed by the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria to reduce road accidents, but was "extended to provide for greater safety of all classes of the public at work, on the road, and in the home". Member organisations included state government agencies, insurers, trade unions, city councils and other nonprofit organisations such as the Royal Life Saving Society Australia. Its scope initially focussed on road safety, sea safety and industrial safety. Although formed as a company limited by guarantee, it was granted an exemption by the state Attorney-General from using the word "Limited" in the name. It was also granted exemptions from lodging audited annual financial statements, changes to office bearers or lists of members. Such exemptions were generally available to companies whose purpose was charitable in nature. In 1929 it began broadcasting weekly safety lectures on radio. Prominent speakers included the Chief Commissioner of the Victoria Police, the chief officer of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, the chairman of the Royal Life Saving Society and the Chief Commissioner of the Victorian Railways. In August 1946 it held its first national safety convention in Adelaide, South Australia. From 1982 the NSCA expanded its activities nationally and began to include dealing with the consequences of accidents, including accident investigations and performing industrial rescue operations. This change was led largely by its new executive director John Friedrich. Friedrich joined NSCA in January 1977 as a safety engineer and was appointed executive director in 1982. At the time NSCA was largely run by volunteers. Following the Ash Wednesday fires in 1983, Friedrich saw the opportunity to transform NSCA into a search and rescue organisation. Over the subsequent six years, NSCA purchased a considerable amount of equipment and established a network of bases around Australia. By 1989 it employed 430 people, who were known colloquially as "The Thunderbirds" after the television series of the same name, and had an annual operating budget of $90 million.