The Big Wet

And it started raining – and kept raining and now instead of drought we have floods. Here are a couple of pictures of the Russel’s Bridge river crossing. From my memory it has been about 10 to 12 years since we have seen water over this low level bridge on the Campaspe River. Looking around our patch at the water in Crab Hole creek and other areas I reckon its been a similar time since I have seen that. Its great to see and the flushing of the rivers and creeks will be a good thing. Many of the CFA volunteers have been assisting the SES and their communities in flood relief works.


As far as the brigade goes there have been only a couple of small incidents. We are now into September and we will be starting to get busy again with training and Fire Danger Period preparedness. The Whipstick group will be holding a group exercise in early October.

The brigade will also commence some fuel reduction burns around the town during October and November. Residents are advised that there will be smoke around the town as we commence these burns. Our immediate priorities will be to clear the large mounds of trees and debris in the recreation reserve. These will burn for days but present a serious hazard to the community in a fire situation. We need to complete these burns to ensure the safety of the town during the fire season.

We have also been advised the Goornong Fire Brigade and community are to receive a new Fire station. It is expected the new station will be completed around April/May 2011. Given the amount of development around the Goornong Assignment area this is welcome news and will be an asset for the community and an investment in the future.

Lastly congratulation to Teisha F on being accepted for the develpment and leadership development course.

The Quiet Months!!!!!!

June through to November is supposed to be the quiet months for us but this year has been pretty busy (by our standards). The turn up for events has been great with many of our new members getting their yellow suits good and dirty. Probably the biggest event was the fire at Okie Dokie farm with a fire in the historic homestead. The property has had a variety of owners and names including John Farnham. Crews from Goornong, Elmore, Huntly, Bendigo and Toolleen fought the blaze. It had well and truly taken hold by the time 000 were notified. The crews did a fantastic job in containing the fire and mopping. Thanks also to the Red Cross for breakfast and coffee. It is probably the most significant incident for the brigade so far this year. The other significant incident was a fire in the ventilation shaft at the Fosterville Mine which Goornong, Huntly, Bendigo and Axedale attended. Pictured is the Okie Dokie fire.

Crews mopping up after the fire

Lastly the Junior Brigade launch has been postponed for a few months to allow us to better prepare for the commencement of activities. We felt we weren’t quite in a position to make the best effort possible to make it a success. We will keep you posted on the progress and hopefully we will be announcing a start date in the near future.

Thanks to all our volunteers and those that have supported us from other brigades over the past few months.

Junior Brigade is on the move

Well we have got past most of the hurdles to commence our Junior Brigade. We will be holding an information session at the Goornong Rec Reserve on Tuesday 27th July at 7.00pm. Anyone aged 11 to 15 years old and interested should talk to their parents and come along to the meeting on the 27th (with parent/guardian). At this point if we get enough interested the Juniors will meet once a month and will have a number of activities planned including game nights, excursions, first aid, plus much much more.
Any one interested please email us for more details.

Chrysler Car Club Motorkana

Saturday 12th June Goornong and Raywood CFA head off bright and early on a crisp morning (bloody cold actually) at the invitation of the Chrysler Car Club to help them with their Motorkana. We were asked to do the parking duties, be on hand in case someone got over enthusiastic and set fire to their prize possessions etc. All the proceeds from the parking were donated to the brigades and we raised a total of $680 for the day. Not a bad effort and our thanks go to the car club for considering us and the generosity of the patrons. Also our thanks to Raywood for their help. Here are a couple of photos from the day.

Our Newest Recruit has arrived

Our latest recruit has just arrived, although it may be sometime before Mum and Dad let her loose on a hose. Congratulations to Donna and Ken on the birth of Kate Maree born Wednesday evening. Mum and Bub are doing well - we haven't heard about Dad. Congratulations guys from all the brigade members.
Captn Dave

65 Roses Day - Cystic Fibrosis

As members of our brigade would know we try to support Cystic Fibrosis, Australia in any small way we can. Next week there is an awareness day, to be precise it will be Friday 28th May. Called 65 Roses Day it is designed to raise awareness of and raise funds for research into Cystic Fibrosis. I would urge any volunteers or follows of our blog out there who have a couple dollars to spare to buy a wrist band, pen or badge to assist this great cause. The merchandise is on sale at most larger stores that I know of and probably lots of other places. More information about 65 Roses day is available at the Cystic Fibrosis web site http://www.cysticfibrosis.org.au/65rosesday/
More information about Cystic Fibrosis can be found at the Cystic Fibrosis - Australia web site http://www.cysticfibrosis.org.au

Interesting Links

The brigade has had a mention in a couple of stories and I also came across an article I thought may interest a few people.
The first link is to the story on our training day at the NDTG.
http://www.cfaconnect.net.au/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1966&I
The second link is to a story on the Murtoa Brigade who are doing some great things and seem to have a philosophy similar to ours.
http://www.cfaconnect.net.au/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1615&Itemid=42

Patto