Following a suggestion by Harold Thorby MHR, a committee was formed in December 1938 headed by Geoffrey Reed KC to formulate plans for a service.
Following Mrs Dutton's tour of the state, regional detachments were formed in Millicent, Mount Gambier and Burra.
In earlier newspaper reports of the formation of VSD's gas mask drill was frequently mentioned, but no hint as to the expected antagonist.
[9] By this time newspaper reports of the organisation's activities in the city had all but disappeared, and only a handful of country groups, notably Clare received any publicity.
The old name persisted tenaciously however, and "Voluntary Service Detachments" were mentioned, even if misreported, in reference to alleviating staff shortages at Yorketown Hospital in 1943[10] and a calamitous bushfire near Mount Gambier in 1944.