Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand

Winners Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand and supporting organisations (right) receive their trophy from category sponsor Consumer NZ (left) | Ella Price, Jon Winchester, Tania Seward, and Jamie Campbell

Website

beacons.org.nz

Judges’ comments

Congratulations to the Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) for its beacons.org.nz website.

We found this website to be a shining example of engaging, impactful information that helps keep New Zealanders safe.

Beacons can be life-saving tools, and the RCCNZ has surfaced key information (such as what happens in emergencies, or when there are accidental activations) to enable readers to act confidently, while also offering a broad range of peripheral information.

The site is colourful and well designed, and its conversational language tells the reader: this isn’t difficult, you’ve got this.

We think RCCNZ have built a truly helpful resource, and are worthy winners of the People’s Choice — Best Communication Award.

Media statement

The team at Maritime NZ’s Rescue Coordination Centre was very excited to take out the award in the People’s Choice category of the Plain Language Awards for our Beacons.org website. I am very proud of the work the Maritime New Zealand team, along with our partners in the NZSAR Secretariat, put into working together to re-develop our beacon website. This is a crucial support to the day-in day-out lifesaving search and rescue coordination service our operational staff provide across New Zealand’s 30 million square mile search and rescue region.

Every year hundreds of thousands, if not well over a million, people in New Zealand get out to enjoy the wilderness around Aotearoa. A key consideration for everyone should be to know how to keep themselves safe.

We are driven to have an accessible, easy-to-understand website for everyone looking to buy, rent, register, and use a beacon to assist in keeping themselves, their family, and friends safe should something go wrong.

We are really encouraged to know our users feel our website is fit for purpose. Carrying a registered beacon doesn’t just help save lives, it also ensures response resources are properly deployed to people in need.

As at the end of September 2023, we have had over 150,000 beacons registered, and the majority of these have been registered by our website beacons.org.nz.

Justin Allan
Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand and Safety Systems General Manager
Maritime New Zealand Nō te rere moana Aotearoa