THE Tabourie Rural Fire Service celebrated its 30th anniversary on Sunday with a special day during which tribute was paid to the men and women who set up the brigade in 1981.
It was an early start for Val Moore and her team who arrived at 8am to lay out the morning tea delights that had been prepared by the Milton Catering Brigade. Richard Findley and the scouts from the 1st Burrill Ulladulla Sea Scouts were on hand to set up a large awning in front of the fire shed.
Brigade members John Johnson and Ray Crittenden, along with other volunteers led by Senior Deputy Captain John Moore, had been hard at work throughout the previous week.
They cleaned the fire shed, set up the tables and arranged over 150 chairs that had been lent by the scouts and the Bawley and Milton Rural Fire Service Brigades.
Finally and importantly Mark Johnson and the truck group had been busy washing and polishing the fire trucks to ensure they sparkled on the day.
At 10.30am Captain Diane Heggie made sure everyone in Tabourie and beyond was aware that the celebrations had commenced by sounding the old fire siren. Families started arriving along with the day’s VIPs: Joanna Gash, Shelley Hancock, Paul Green and Chief Superintendent Ken Hall.
Councillors Amanda Findley, Greg Watson, former Deputy Mayor John Anderson and Superintendent Ian Stewart also attended.
Scout Matthew Findley commenced the official part of the day with an acknowledgement of traditional custodians.
Joana Gash, Paul Green and Shelly Hancock all spoke passionately about their commitment to volunteer groups in the Shoalhaven and to the important community service they provide.
Mrs Hancock noted that the Tabourie Fire Service was led by a woman and said she hoped that would inspire other women to join in active emergency service volunteer work.
Chief Superintend Ken Hall thanked Tabourie for its work within the RFS and informed the audience about the important hazard reduction work Rural Fire Service brigades did during the cooler months of the year.
He also alerted local communities to the possibility of serious fires occurring during the upcoming fire season.
The important part of proceedings then commenced.
Thirty year anniversary plaques were provided to the surviving Tabourie Fire Service founding members and auxilliary: Annette and Len Parsons, John and Lyn Ashton, Paul and Lia Synder, Don Davies, Ted Wild, Biddy Davies, Jean Cooper and Lorna Betts.
Chief Superintended Ken Hall made the final presentation of RFS Commissioner 30 year service medals to Annette and Len Parsons.
Steve Ellsworth then carried a huge cake anniversary cake into the shed which was cut by 95 year old Biddy Davies (assisted by Brad Zerbes) surrounded by Joanna Gash, Shelley Hancock, Paul Green and Ken Hall.
Everyone was then invited to join in a BBQ that had been cooked by Brian and Adam Skennar.
The importance of the day was summarized by Diane Heggie who said “we owe a great deal to the founders of the Tabourie RFS; many lives and a great deal of property has been saved because of their work”.
- Anyone interested in volunteering with the Tabourie RFS should contact Diane Heggie on 4457 3259.
From humble beginnings, Tabourie brigade has come a long way
STORY: Len Parsons, Deputy Captain
During the late 1970s the original Lake Tabourie volunteer fore brigade had slipped into abeyance.
A truck (a Ford Blitz) was stationed at the motel and had rusted into disrepair. Fred James, Bob Turley and Mr Boyd and Dave Gillies were the only ones still involved from the earlier group and they had all reached an age when they no longer had the energy or the resources to keep the truck functional.
The motel was sold and the truck went AWL.
In the late 1970s a massive bushfire from the south swept completely around the village in about 10 minutes flat and it was a miracle that the village was saved and no lives lost as the only resource available was a trailer loaded with two 44 gallon drums of water and there were no experienced firefighters.
After this near miss, several members of the community became very concerned at just how vulnerable our village was.
At that time we were reliant on tank water and a very uncertain electricity supply which meant that household water pumps were not reliable and certainly did not work during blackouts.
A public meeting for concerned people was called for, at which it was decided to form a committee to oversee the formation of a new fire brigade.
We were supplied with an old Landrover and pump (courtesy of Dick Wiffen in Nowra) which was shortly upgraded to an International, single cab truck with a bench seat on the back. It did not have an intercom unfortunately.
As there was no flashing light provided with the tanker, John Ashton managed to obtain one from who knows where.
A site for the fire station was selected and the committee was told by council that it would meet our costs half way towards building a fire station 24x36 feet and of brick structure; provided the community supplied the labour. This is something that would not be allowed nowadays. Material and labour costs were approximately $12,000.
As a community we had barbecues, Tupperware parties, markets, raffles etc and eventually were able to raise enough to get started on the building. In fact this also saw the creation of a Ladies fundraising group which later became known as the ‘Tuesday ladies’.
Our shed bears the workmanship of many keen but not so experienced workers and is a monument to those people who are no longer here to witness this unbelievable anniversary.
Active members had to purchase their overalls and boots etc and the arrangement was that this money would be refunded after 18 months when money became available.
Our first captain was Les Moss and Len Parsons was our first deputy. This order reversed after three years and the crew set out to learn fire fighting the hard way and were often called ‘Dad’s Army’ – as a joke of course.
Other original members were John Ashton, Ted Wild, Ian Bolton, Jack Murray, Byron Dengate, Bert Cummings, Don Davies, Peter Bale, Paul Snyders and Arthur Field.
During the very early days a fire at the motel destroyed the living quarters and badly damaged the bar and dining area. This was one of our early experiences with structural fires and caused an upsurge of interest in our brigade.
At that time our meetings involved many social members who were not able for one reason or another to be active members of the brigade. These people were invaluable as they were the backbone of our community.
Nowadays we are lucky to have pagers for our members, but at first it was left to the captain’s wife to rally a crew once they got the firecall.
Money was then raised to purchase a siren for the fire station. This could not be heard by some members when the win was blowing the wrong way – but certainly sped up responses.
It is hard to believe our brigade has come so far and we are all proud to still be members of Tabourie RFS.
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