Newmerella Volunteer Fire Brigade celebrates 50 years this year, and it does so as it prepares for a record early fire season.
The township of Newmerella started life on the west bank of the Snowy River and seems to have been completely relocated to its present position on the hill by 1930.
In the days of limited travel and communication it was much more self-contained than today – it fielded its own football, cricket, basketball and table tennis clubs, the hall hosted old-time dances, church services and Sunday schools and occasional tennis clubs.
There was no mains power before March 1964 and no mains water until 1973. Telephones were of the manual wind-up variety until 1974, and even now there is no sewerage.
Three, later four, timber mills provided employment, spot mills were run as small businesses and sleeper-cutters worked the surrounding bush.
A bakery, and at one stage a printer, operated on Warrens Road, and the general store sold fuel and day-to-day needs. Corringle was a popular destination with many residents building holiday shacks.
The highway to Orbost, the site of the nearest fire brigade, was narrow and windy. With the best will in the world, the Orbost tanker could not get to any emergency in the township within 10 minutes – longer for outlying areas. Some residents were members of the Orbost rural brigade, but could do little until appliances arrived.
By April 1968, one such member, along with the school’s principal, believed the district was capable of supporting a brigade of its own. In the days before word-processors and photocopiers, they prepared more than 120 letters to property-holders in the township and surrounding rural areas inviting them to a meeting to discuss the formation of a local brigade. After a community meeting beside the highway, more than 40 then attended a meeting at the school to meet with regional officer, Allan Cameron, and resolved to urge the Country Fire Authority to go through the appropriate motions to form a brigade.
Two months does not seem a very long time when going through official processes, but that was all it took to officially register the brigade on June 17, 1968, as a Class B Rural Fire Brigade.
Knapsacks and rake hoes were strategically placed in properties around the area and Mr Cameron delivered the first actual appliance before the fire season. A tanker trailer with a pump and room for two knapsacks, it was converted by members to carry three more knapsacks and four rake hoes.
It relied on the good graces of the members to tow it with their own vehicles and was parked at the front of the captain’s house on McLaughlins Road.
Meetings were held at the school and a high tank there was fitted with a bigger pipe to enable rapid filling of the appliances. Water was pumped into the tank from a dam in the school grounds.
The site selected for a station was in the corner of a private block sold to the CFA for the princely sum of $150. A shed was built by the members’ voluntary labour, facing east on what is now the concrete apron of the current station. Essentially it was just storage for future appliances but had to double as a meeting venue, with no water or toilet and no creature comforts.
After the early years of trailers, a borrowed tanker and private vehicles, the first tanker arrived and was recorded at its first job in 1972. It was an old petrol-powered English Austin that was not designed for hot weather – which of course was when it was needed most.
Petrol would evaporate in the pipes before it reached the engine.
It had two-wheel drive and a ‘crash’ box transmission. The pump was a small petrol powered unit started with a rope. The trick after getting it started was to remember to tie the rope back onto the railing. It had a revolving red beacon but no siren.
The station may have been basic and the tanker old, but three years after the first public meeting it was a fully functioning fire brigade.
Fifty years on much has changed. The highway has been straightened and access to Orbost is greatly improved. Many new residences have been built in outlying areas such as Simpsons Creek. Three mills have closed but new risks, such as a gas plant and metering stations, seed co-operative and enlargement of the store to a substantial service station with a gas ‘bullet’, are part of the brigade’s responsibility.
The vehicles are infinitely more modern and sophisticated with larger pumps. Protective clothing and training approach professional standards. Widening of CFA responsibilities beyond just firefighting, and automatic support calls to neighbouring brigades, have dramatically increased the number of calls received.
It’s been a busy 50 years, and it’s not over yet.
