Author: Mick Holton

The Victim summaries contained in this document are from volunteers and staff who have bravely contacted the author to express their destressing and desperate plights. What is clear in every case is that the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS) knowing showed an arogenate disregard of its duty of care as an employer. It, the RFS, fosters a culture where reports of Bullying, Harassment, Discrimination and Sexual Misconduct were ignored, supressed or dismissed. Complaints and grievances are systematically lost and investigations delayed and incompetently mishandled to the point complainants simply give up and leave the service. Retaliation is a common occurrence for victims of the RFS. It is common for a complainant to be the subject of a new counter complaint especially when the original complaint is about a Captain or other senior member of their Brigade. Dog Whistling and Gaslighting are common place and go unchecked even in the presence of senior RFS staff.

A team of researchers at Griffith University are conducting a survey to try and identify knowledge and knowledge gaps in relation to the impact of fire-fighting chemicals on species and ecosystems in Australia as part of a larger project.

They are looking for the opinions of people from groups involved in fire management in Australia.

These groups might include fire services, researchers, policy makers, land managers, government and chemical manufacturers.

Nestled beside one of Melbourne’s busiest roads, sits the Bolin Bolin Billabong — a site of immense cultural significance for the traditional owners, the Wurundjeri people.

Part of a once-vast wetland that flowed into the Yarra River, it’s known to them as Birrarung.

It used to be rich in native foods such as waterfowl, fish, eels and plants.

For associate professor in earth sciences and Wiradjuri man Michael Shawn Fletcher, it’s still rich — in priceless data.

His scientific analysis of this muddy waterhole gives an extraordinary window into the past.

RED Friday Peer Support Team Training is available for up to fifteen NSW RFS Volunteer Firefighters (fully sponsored by RED Friday).

RED Friday has created a program schedule specifically for NSW RFS Volunteers.

Note: You don’t have to be a member of the VFFA to participate.

The primary focus of the program is the development of the skills needed to provide a reliable internal support system at a Brigade level and a crisis response plan (external support programs) as needed.

Coulson’s pioneering in the night fire suppression space is really ground breaking. Read more ….

Three years after the Turnbull announced two Blackhawk helicopters would be transferred to the RFS, it appears that it will no eventually happen.
This is one of a number of stories in this edition of our News Roundup from around the state,

Project title Exploring the influence of leadership styles on volunteer firefighter mental health and wellbeing. What does the research involve? This study seeks to explore the impacts of COVID-19 on volunteer firefighter’s mental health and wellbeing. Specifically, the researchers are interested in