Author: Mick Holton

Review of eucalypt decline and dieback in relation to lack of low intensity fire management across Australia.

By John O’Donnell – June 2023

The pdf distribution of the January 2023 VFFA magazine was delayed because of changes to our website design and hosting. The VFFA website may look similar, but the back end has undergone significant upgrades, and work continues.

The printed edition was distributed closer to the publication date, and the pdf was shared as much as possible (without our web-based distribution system).

The latest VFFA Magazine can be downloaded from this website. You might also like to update your membership details so that you can receive email updates, pdf or printed material.

The 15th World Firefighters Games will be held in Aalborg, Denmark in 2024.

5,000 firefighters and accompanying families are expected to visit Aalborg from September 7th to 14th 2024 to participate in more than 40 sports.

The World Firefighters Games has been held since 1990 when the first host city was Auckland, New Zealand. The last time the games visited Europe, was in 2008 in Liverpool.

Aalborg’s ambition is to create games where sport, community and unique experiences are in focus.

It would be fantastic see an increased Australian presence at these games.

On 22 April 2022, the NSW Government lifted Public Health Orders requiring mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for some sectors, instead recommending vaccine requirements be based on risk assessments.

Following this, NSW RFS members were advised that the RFS position requiring all staff and volunteers to be vaccinated remained in place.

NSW RFS members are able to provide feedback on the risk assessment via the feedback form (links in this post) by Friday 10 June 2022.

The VFFA is encouraging as many NSW RFS members as possible to provide feedback to the RFS.

Cowabbie Street, Coolamon NSW (entry by kind donation).

This fun day is organised by the Coolamon Fire Museum.

Members of the public, fire engine owners and enthusiasts are all welcome to come along.

You won’t want to miss out on seeing fire engines, emergency service and educational displays, the Firefighters Fun Relay, classic cars, bikes, and market stalls.

On the topic of COVID vaccination mandates and the requirement for volunteers to disclose their vaccination status, the question that should be asked is:

Would the NSW RFS refuse service delivery to members of the public who are not vaccinated or who choose not to disclose their vaccination status?

The answer is obviously “No”

Therefore, why mandate the requirement for volunteers to disclose their vaccination status or even be vaccinated at all.

Cathy Noakes walked away from the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS) in 2014, but she never quit firefighting.

After more than a decade of active service, three of them as captain of her brigade in Farringdon, Ms Noakes stepped down in frustration with the RFS bureaucracy.

“You weren’t allowed to just go and put out a fire,” she said. “You always had to wait for approval. So, as you waited, the fire just escalated.”

Instead, Ms Noakes joined the “mosquito army”, a network of community-based firefighting teams, that went on to play a vital role in firefighting efforts during the 2019-2020 bushfires around Braidwood in the NSW Southern Tablelands.

With their own firefighting gear and radios, local knowledge and experience, the “mozzies” worked in close partnership with their local brigades when RFS resources were stretched beyond their limit across the state.

You FLIR K1 may be due for an upgrade.

The K1 includes a USB-C port in the top compartment. The USB port allows the user to update the System firmware by first downloading an update file from the FLIR website and then connecting the K1 to a PC to transfer the file.