Whats been going on...

This fire season we have experienced on of the driest in years, with hardly no rain recorded since the middle of November 2012. There has been a number of major fires in the district including the Tooleen fire some months ago. Of concern is the continued threat we face until we receive rain. The fire danger period will continue until the moisture levels in the ground return to a safe level to prevent fire from spreading. So far this year, the community has been wonderfully proactive in ensuring that fires don’t start, something brigade members are thankful for. We ask that you continue with the great vigilance until the rains come.

The brigade has received it’s first sets of breathing apparatus. These devices allow crew to enter a burning building to allow for rescue and internal fire attack. Training is underway for the technical side of internal firefighting but it is a wonderful addition in protecting life and property in the Goornong area. 

The CFA through the VFBF who represent the volunteers have advertised widely about the importance of thinking like a volunteer. Again we reinforce the message that because a fire starts in your area does not mean that you will receive a warning or that a tanker will turn up to protect you and your property. Goornong has two tankers with experienced crew but they can’t be everywhere. Have you thought about your fire plan. What happens if you see smoke upwind of your place. What actions will you put in place to keep your family, cherished pets and property safe. 

For more information, please see the CFA website www.cfa.vic.gov.au or talk to one of our members.

New members are always welcome at the brigade – meetings are on the last Monday of the month.
For more information, please ring Tim McCrohan Captain of the Goornong fire brigade on 0409 404 498.

Goornong Resident of the Year one of our own...

We wish to congratulate Barry Winzar on His award this year – Goornong resident of the year. Barry has been involved in many of the community groups around the district over the years including the CFA where He held the position of secretary for a number of years. There are very few people around who have the local knowledge of the Welshford forest like Barry has, and this has aided in reducing the fire threat to our community over the last past few years. Barry now calls Bendigo home but frequents his farm regularly. Congratulations Barry.

RIP Brian 'Giffo' Giffney

Since our last post, our brigade lost one of its stall warts, Brian Giffney who passed away recently. He was an active member of the brigade until health took its toll and He was unable to turn out to incidents. He still was able to pass on a wealth of experience through His wisdom. One thing that Giffo was always remembered for and all the members of the brigade say in unison, `Black out off the truck’. He would force crews to do the hardest and dirtiest part the hard way and He had a sound motto – Do the job once. So often we have heard of fires that have jumped containment lines because of poor blacking out. This is one skill that all new members have learnt and it is second nature now. Off the truck and do it right. I guess that’s why we don’t have to return to fires. Our thoughts are with his family.

30 years of service...

A big congratulations to both Frank Dole and Barry Winzar who late last year were awarded for 30 years service. Both were presented Life Membership for their long service and commitment to the brigade.

Brigade Service awards were presented by Mr Gibbs and Mr Alun Hughson, Operations Manager CFA.

Congratulations to the following members who were present to receive their awards. There were many other awards to be presented, however, several recipients were not present. These will be presented later.

5 year certificate – Donna Papworth & Di Patterson
10 year medal – Ruth Jenkins, Felicity Nicholls, Tony Trotter, Les Varker & Wendy Young
20 year medal – David Patterson

A big congratulations to all those awarded.

Easter Parade Preparations

Come one come all and join in the fun...

That was the idea on Friday 30 March which saw adults and kids alike enjoy getting down and dirty with glow in the dark paints. All the preparations are coming together for the Easter parade... Although the mozzies were way too friendly, fun was had getting our trailer ready for the big night.

Don't forget to come out and support your local members and families at the parade!!!

Fiskville 2012 Challenge

7th of January till 18th of January

by Teisha Fullex

On the 7th of January 19 participants and 3 leaders from around Victoria all gathered at Fiskville to start an Adventure of a life time. When everyone arrived no one knew anyone. After we said our goodbyes to our family members our adventure started. Stewart gave us a short introduction about the challenge and about the day ahead of us.

At 1500hrs The senior group started their walk up to the training center to watch a short movie about the history of Fiskville and the Challenge. After the movie we got introduced to Carol and Michael (they are who i had at Hattah), they are the life performance instructors for the course.

The first 3 days involved classes with Carol. Learning about ourselves and other people, how they react and how they don't, about setting goals etc. Each morning included a 0600hrs wake up to be ready by 0630hrs to start our 5km walk. Each one of Carols classes brought the team closer together. Mark our leader told us that we had to come up with a Team name, our team name was "Team Unity". We were also given blocks of wood that we had to carry everywhere with us because we had to write on the back of it our "Baggage". After the 2days we had to write a submission as a team and present it to Carol, once she approves it we get to say goodbye to our baggage forever and not think about it ever again. So when we got rid of it we burnt it.

After the first 3 days we then boarded a bus to Bairnsdale then another bus out to where we start our rafting for the next 4 days. The first 3 days were rafting. But we in counted a bad storm where we had to get off the water for an hour and head winds the whole way, so instead it taking 3 days to paddle 66kms it took 4 days. We also had to pull our rafts out the water twice as well as all of our packs and carry them across rocks. Each night we would cook dinner, set up bivvies, dig Doug (Doug was the shovel but we ended up calling the toilet Doug as well) and make a fire. After Dinner we would have a team briefing, by the time that was over it was almost 2300hrs most of the time. We had to get up at 0600hrs every morning.

Once off the water we had to hike about 13km. 90% of it was up hill, and because of my knee i struggled a lot. But with the help of my Team and Wayne's walking pole i made it and achieved what i set out to do, which was "Complete everything that was thrown at me while at Challenge". That night we split up into 3 groups. A 2000hrs one, 2400hrs and 0300hrs. That was for the caving. I was in the 2400hr group, the cave was amazing but due to a couple of people in my group that we slow getting down we lost allot of time and we didn't get to see the whole of the cave, we only saw the wedding chamber and the music chamber, but both were amazing. When we came out it was 0300hrs and we still had to hike up a massive hill, before we did the caving i had half an hour sleep so when i got back to camp i fell asleep straight away. When morning come, one of the chicks that were in the first group decided that she will come and wake everyone up at 6am, let's just say that didn't go down well with me and i refused to get out of bed, so she raised her voice at me and i bit back. I didn't hear a word from her again. But i wasn't the only one that was pissed at her.

After the rest of the group got back we had breakfast and a debrief about the day ahead of us. The day ahead of us was our 24hr solo. So after camp was packed up we got all of our solo gear which consisted of; 4lts of water, couscous, hot chocolate powder, milk powder, baked beans, tuna and muesli, mini Doug, a bivvie, bivvie cords and 3 pegs. Dan and Nick pick our spots for us, we have a 10meter radius around our little camp. While on course we had questions to answer which were; What were my goals for challenge, my limiting story, the animal i have been while on course and a gift for the group. After sharing everything with the group we then went back up to the main camp and boarded a bus to go to the rock climbing and abseiling.

Once we arrived at the site we had to walk about 500meters to the abseiling and it was a 36 degree day so it was really hot. Because i had already done Abseiling before Dan and Nick made me jump all the way down instead of walking, So i did. And with the rock climbing they made me do the second hardest one. Which i struggled with but i made it up. After the rock climbing we then set off for camp for the LAST night of the Outward Bound component.

Dan and Nick cooked us dinner that night, we had buretteos, they were yummy. As a group we decided to sleep under the stars. That night we had a massive possum problem, and these possums were not scared, we were throwing water bottles, shoes basically anything we could throw we threw at them, and all they did was stand there and stare. So that night was pretty restless.

The next morning we had to get up early so we could wash down and pack the rest of our gear. Once packed up the bus arrived and it was time for us to go back to Fiskville. We were all sad to be leaving the Snowy Mountains but were excited to get back to shower because no one had showered for 8 days so we were all pretty smelly. We stopped at Sale for lunch, most of us walked into maccas, i think we all cleared it out we smelt and looked terrible so i wouldn't have blamed them all running away it was quite funny. Once we ate maccas we were back on the road. Once back at Fiskville everyone ran for the showers (well mainly the boys) us senior girls had our own on-suite so it was good. After the shower we had to go and have dinner. We had a 3 course meal that night because the big guns of CFA were there. On the bus we had to make a speech about "what did Challenge mean to us". So in between the meals we had the presentations. After Dinner was finished we had a class to go to with Carol. So as a team we walked up to the training centre and took our last class with Carol. When we got back to the main area in the pool room at about 2300hrs no one was tired so we all ended up dancing around and playing pool. Until about 0130hrs we all headed to bed.

Then our parents started arriving, again as a team we walked up to the training centre and our two representatives for Team Unity got up and made a speech, thanking everyone ETC. After the speech we were then presented with a certificate. After everything was finished there we went back down to the diner and had lunch. After everyone had finished we all stood in a circle and said our goodbyes. We have a reunion in May that we are all attending so we all look forward to that.

Participants:

Alan Edwards

Andrew White

Ash Brown

Dylan Hewitt

Graeme McCarthy

Jesse Sherman

Kathryn Sloan

Leesa Nitschke

Luke Commisso

Mark Caton (Leader)

Nadine Blyth

Nathan Freeman

Richard Evans

Ryan Pentreath

Sam Ainslie

Sarah Black

Teisha Fullex

Victoria Skase

Wayne Goodes

Dan (Outward Bound)

Nick (Outward Bound)

From Fire Sheds to Fire Station

by Barrie. J. Winzar

On November 4th 1903, a "Bush Fire Defence Association" was established in Goornong at a public meeting,

Two years later a fire shed was planned and built by locals in 1906 adjacent to the police station. The shed housed a cart with a 175 gallon tank (700 litres).

In 1917 a Furphy water tank was purchased to replace the cart.

In 1944, stands for two Furphy tanks were erected at the corner or Grant and Langdon streets - the original slip ons. The school bell was rang as a fire alert.

The Country Fire Authority was established in 1944 and local brigades functioned under... In 1947 Captain George Lawrence moved to apply for a truck and equipment. At that time tanks and equipment were disbursed geographically, eg: Lt Jack Clay at Bagshot, Lt C K Hyett at Fosterville.

Permisson was sought from the railways in 1951 to build a fire station across the road from
Ringe's Garage. Construction began in 1952 with all the work done by members, even making every cement brick. Many working bees were necessary!

Not until 1969 was water connected.

At the December meeting in 1978, Captain Gee advised that Goornong was to get a new steel shed fire station and the existing shed would be pulled down! However at the 1979 February meeting, Captain Gee brought to the attention of members the potential growth of Goornong, believing that it warranted the new fire shed be adequate for housing two tankers and perhaps an operations room. The CFA would be so advised! CFA Regional Officer G Summerton attended the next meeting apparently annoyed with the temerity of the Goornong Brigade in not accepting the style of shed allocated. Chairman Reg Westwood enquired as to why the Brigade was not consulted regarding the type of shed. The Regional Officer said that there were plenty of Brigades who would pick up the shed and erect it themselves and then went on to elaborate on what the CFA officers did. Lt Giffney however, pointed out that that was the trouble with the CFA, whereas "the ones who really did the work having no say at all". He went on to point out that the previous shed was built by volunteer labour. The Regional Officer was questioned further on whether he was prepared to try and get a bigger shed. Secretary at the time, Jack Robertson, recorded "R.O. Summerton in a complete change of mind, stated that he was prepared to try". Then B. Giffney moved and Don Symons seconded "that we ask the R. O. to make application for a 30ft x 30ft shed" carried.

However it was not until 1984 that a new shed was built with material supplied by CFA and constructed carried out by members under the leadership of Lt Brian Giffney.

After repeated requests to CFA a toilet building was delivered to the Fire Shed in 2001 and installed by Lt Brian Giffney with the assistance of members.

In 2010, Government funding provided for a Rolling Program Update, in which our Brigade was included.

The Brigade was instrumental in securing the new site, and a welcome change in policy enabled all construction to be carried out by contractors funded and supervised by CFA.