Chris Webber – Historian
Christopher Webber was born in England and lived in Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka before moving to Australia. He has been bushwalking in Australia and overseas for more than 50 years, and led walks for the All Nations Bushwalking Club. At the beginning of 2020, after the Federal government cut TAFE funding significantly, he was made redundant, after 15 years’ service with TAFE and the Department of Education. Noticing that the incidents described in this book are happening again and again, he decided to try writing a history book that might help reduce their frequency and alert visitors to the issue. In 2021, he won first prize for his presentation about the book at the AFAC21 Fire & Emergency Services Conference. The presentation celebrated how well the local emergency services work together, an essential ingredient for the almost routine success of Blue Mountains search and rescue operations.
Christopher has been a member of Blue Mountains SES since 2001, and a SES member for 25 years. He is the recipient of the National Medal, the 2019-2020 Bushfire Citation, the NSW SES Long Service Medal, the National Emergency Medal and other awards. He has been involved in many searches for missing persons as well as other dramatic events described in the book. He has published two military history books, many articles, and a World War 2 hex -and-counter type historical simulation game. He wrote the training manuals for his IT courses.
He worked in the IT industry as a trainer, project manager, software tester, website content editor, and IT support technician for over 30 years. He has a degree in Ancient History, specialising on the Thracians and ancient warfare. He made significant contributions to the ancient & medieval historical strategy game Field of Glory 2. He studied History, Science, Journalism, IT, Adult Education and Training, and the Masters of Emergency Management.
