By Callum Ludwig
The Warburton CFA has launched a book celebrating its 100+ year history looking back at everything from devastating fires to uplifting community efforts.
An old-fashioned hardback, ‘Warburton Fire Brigade: Honouring the past, protecting the future’ is perfect for the coffee table and contains full-colour and black-and-white historical photographs alongside stories from the public, past members and descendants of founding members.
66-year member and former Captain of the Warburton CFA Barry Marshall said the brigade was first established back in 1914.
“The first fire brigade was registered in 1915, and a lot of the original books and meeting notes were kept, which is where we started with this. We started the book in about 2010 as a chap named Peter Sutherland was very interested in the history of fire trucks and stuff so we started to dig everything up,” he said.
“It started getting put together bit by bit, and Peter went down to the Melbourne Museum and looked at the archives there before captain Hazel [Clothier] took over and we got a writer named Sally Williams who put the book together.”
Ms Williams spent hours at the Marshall’s home going through old photos from Barry’s extensive time serving to contribute towards the book.
Mr Marshall said there has been a fair few significant fire events the Warburton brigade has helped to tackle.
“In the early days, the 1926 and 1932 fires went through here, the ‘26 fires were throughout Gippsland and went right through to Mallacoota and then after the ‘39 fires cut right through Warburton,” he said.
“The Ash Wednesday fires we had here were also a wake-up call to a lot of places around here that one of the biggest problems we got here is that there’s only one road in one road out and those fires went for a whole seven days.”
A number of other key events are included in the book, including Dame Nellie Melba’s visit to host a concert to fundraise for a hose tower, the brigade’s strong competition and running teams that travelled around Victoria to compete and the move to the new fire station in 1982, where the brigade has remained situated since.
Mr Marshall said you’ve got to have a very strong brigade in the community, especially as life has changed these days.
“Over the years that I’ve been involved in the fire brigade, I’ve seen that it just gets into your system and you stay with it. It’s been 66 years and I was captain for 22 years from 1978 to 2000,” he said.
“This book highlights a lot of the older people through some of the photos and stuff they’re in it also shows for the younger people today what you can enjoy in the brigade.”
The book can be purchased at www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=982502&fbclid=IwAR3fBlq0mDuRVba4l1UNEkXlj1e3l4p3SVYdYDqLrTXcf7ZEerP1UYxzSVQ or can be picked up the Warburton Water Wheel alongside the photo exhibition about the brigade that is on there until 29 November.
