Simone explained she wears many hats including Volunteer Sustainability Portfolio, South-West Logistics
Chair, Junior Development, and Youth Team with her area covering from Geelong to Mount Gambier
to say the least.
Simone explained growing up in Castlemaine and becoming the wife of a CFA Captain as a professional
operational member and currently a FRV commander for Warrnambool and Portland. Her dedication was
self-evident when she recruited nine mothers in Maldon to become CFA volunteers. The ability to create
a system of child-minding facilities at the Maldon Station where she was living at the time and having
coordination with the local schools to indicate the mothers were not able to pick up their children as they
were out on an incident.
CFA as an organization has been operational since 1945. Its mission statement is protecting lives and
property that 'binds us'. The 14-year anniversary of Black Saturday is to be held at Cockatoo and Panmure.
The ceremony at Panmure will be on 19 February 2023.
The substantial loss of lives of 178 people and the devastation of property has never been forgotten despite
the numerous subsequent fires that the community has experienced.
As an organisation the CFA has 1,200 brigades, 54,000 members of which 34,000 are operational members.
The CFA services 4 million people in Regional Victoria and covers the span of 224,000kms and attends
to 33,000 incidents+ a year.
There is a junior brigade in Warrnambool and has gone into recess as the numbers have declined for
young juniors. Encouragement has occurred with a cadetship for 16 to 18 year-olds to participate. The CFA
volunteers for the Merri Group has 70-members although in the past there were 140 members.
The Mortlake Road fire station has Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) members as paid staff. The CFA also operates
out of the Mortlake Road station for its training.
New volunteers are on a 3-month probation and there is some formal training requirements which are online
training. The requirements appear to be more onerous although understandable in the current climate of firefighting
and the consequences of saving lives as well as your own.
Simone also explained that non- operational volunteering is also very important with a logistics element support
and rehabilitation of operational members as well as dealing with mapping skills and IT support where required.
Out of the Merri-Group, 25 members are seconded for firefighting and flood activities in other regional areas.
Current members also need ongoing training for burn over drills and tree hazards and operation of equipment
on trucks. Members also will assist with the Good Friday appeal.
The CFA group are second responders to the FRV operational group.
Our own member Joanne O'Brien is a long standing active member of CFA. Of course our own Barry Moran
has been a long-standing CFA member.
Given the club's decision to conclude our summer barbeques on Friday 20 January 2023 hopefully there will be
another successful fundraising night and a well-earned rest thereafter.
I would like to thank all members who have assisted in any shape or form with the summer barbeques and a
special thanks to Ian Harper as a director for community services, Chris and Janey and Glenn as well as great efforts
on the part of Steve Bellamy and Andrew Suggett.
Hopefully Joanne, who is deputy director of community service and projects will be able to take up the reigns in
future years and also she is the sausage sizzler queen. She even gave her own in-house chef Peter Inverarity a lesson
in cooking sausages. You wouldn't have believed it.
Enjoy the social night on 27 January 2023 in my absence as I will be having a holiday to Gippsland and will we back
for the following Wednesday meeting on 15 February 2023. The Board will meet on 6 February 2023 and I would like
to thank Chris for leading the charge in my absence as well as the Group Five meeting on 8 February 2023.
So, Let's Imagine Rotary.
Your President,
Sergio Bacchetti.
