Metro and country brigade partnership

A NEW partnership between the four CFA brigades in the Triangle and the Rowville brigade was initiated last Sunday when members of the Rowville CFA Fire Brigade toured the Triangle.

The Rowville brigade is a busy metropolitan brigade located in the City of Knox in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Following the implementation of Fire Services Reform, the number of events attended by Rowville volunteers has reduced. While they support Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) within their previous urban response area, they retain primary response for a large area outside the FRV District including parts of Lysterfield Park, Churchill National Park, and various urban interface areas.

Following an approach to the CFA Volunteer Sustainability Team, an invitation was made to the four Triangle brigades to form a partnership with Rowville. Rowville expressed a desire for an opportunity to train with the Triangle brigades to develop skills in crew leadership and off road driving for their members.

An initial planning meeting was held at Narbethong Fire Station in July where Rowville Captain, Cien Pereira, outlined some of the challenges being faced by her members and the new environment they operate in following Fire Services Reform. Cien spoke about the challenges of developing command and control expertise in new members. It was obvious that all five brigades would benefit by coming together to form a working partnership. Rowville has offered to provide crews to stand-by at local stations to allow Triangle brigades to hold brigade awards nights, travel to field training grounds, or attend group training exercises without compromising response coverage. Discussions have also involved the potential for members of the Rowville Junior Fire Brigade to assist with the reformation of the Triangle Juniors. Currently the four Triangle brigades are attempting to reboot the CFA Junior Volunteer Development Program across the Triangle.

To kick off the new partnership, two crews from Rowville travelled to the Triangle on Sunday, August 7, to be shown around the four Triangle fire stations. Led by Narbethong Captain, Rob Bean, and Marysville Captain, Travis Gleeson, the members from Rowville were given a tour of the various townships and their fire stations. With Buxton members already committed to a ‘Recruit Firefighter Course’, the tour finished at the Buxton Fire Station where the visitors got involved in the practical training being conducted after which a barbecue lunch was enjoyed by the two Rowville crews joined by Buxton, Marysville, Narbethong and Taggerty crews.