Hilldene Fire Brigade is one of the 150 grassroots community and not-for-profit groups across Australia to receive Australia Post’s People of Post Grant.
The brigade will be receiving $2000.
Captain William Fenech said a Hilldene firefighter who worked for Australia Post nominated the brigade for the grant.
“Luckily for us, we were successful obtaining a grant towards one of the things that we’re working on, which is the fire brigade competition,” he said.
The competition among brigades started around 150 years ago as a demonstration for the public.
“Now, it’s kind of evolved into a place where we can show our skills and compete against different brigades,” Mr Fenech said.
“More importantly, it provides (an opportunity for) firefighters to actually go and talk to other firefighters and see what’s new and exciting ... coming in the field, and encourages participation.”
Mr Fenech said the competition did not require participants to be active firefighters.
“I’ve met firefighters who were almost 70 years old and plus who are still competing,” he said.
“It’s kind of just like something else that a firefighter can do other than attending incidents.”
Hilldene Fire Station is just adjacent to Seymour, but its brigade is much smaller.
Mr Fenech said the brigade’s size made it hard to raise enough money.
“Unlike a bigger brigade like a Seymour, for instance, they have a township, and they have quite a few people and it’s easy to, I suppose, raise a little bit of money,” he said.
“There’s only about 300 houses, I suppose, in all of Hilldene and that’s in 120 square kilometres, so trying to raise money for something that’s not directly firefighting, it would be difficult.
“Something like this grant, for instance, it provides us basically an ability to fund things like uniforms that we would otherwise not be able to afford for members.”
Mr Fenech said the Hilldene Fire Brigade had not joined the fire brigade competition in over 10 years.
“That’s not just our brigade, that’s a lot of brigades in the CFA,” he said.
“I think this is kind of just like what we’re trying to encourage our members, that it’s not just about firefighting.
“There’s a lot more to CFA, a lot more in terms of what you can do other than just getting on a big red truck and going to some sometimes rather traumatic events.
“A strong brigade is one that works together and can talk to each other, and we do things outside of just firefighting.
“Competition is a really good wellbeing and morale boost for everybody doing something rather than when a pager goes off ... when the alarm goes off, getting up at two in the morning.
“This provides something else other than that.”
Mr Fenech said with the important role of firefighters in the community, it was crucial to look after their mental health.
Because of this, Mr Fenech said he’d like to thank the brigade member who nominated Hilldene for the grant.
“We expect firefighters to be bulletproof sometimes and do what you do, day after day, and it does have a bit of a toll,” he said.
“I just say thank you very much for the support you provided to our brigade.
“You’re strengthening not just our brigade in terms of morale and wellbeing, but by doing so, you’re making us more effective when we actually go in attendance as well.”
For more information about volunteering at the CFA, visit https://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/volunteers-careers/volunteer-with-cfa