New CFA Apostles brigade prepares to “put the wet stuff on the red stuff” over summer

Western Victoria is heading into summer with a thinner pool of Country Fire Authority volunteers and rising concerns about how smaller rural communities will cope with an expected spike in bushfire risk.

Forecasts from Emergency Management Victoria show above-normal fire risk for the state this spring, with western districts flagged as particularly vulnerable. 

Climate modelling from the state government also points to longer, hotter fire seasons becoming the new norm over coming years.

To streamline operations and better prepare teams for emergency response, the Cobden and Timboon groups have merged to form the Apostles Group, covering 14 brigades across the south west. 

The change was driven by volunteers themselves, aiming to lighten workloads and make the organisation more sustainable.

Port Campbell brigade captain and Apostles Deputy Group Officer Katy Millard said shrinking rural populations and time pressures have reshaped the volunteer landscape. 

She noted that farms are larger and require more work, young people often move away, and local brigades rely heavily on long-serving members.

“At my brigade at Port Campbell, we’ve got a good range of demographics: we have many women turning out during the day, we’ve got a few younger people, but at the moment, it’s just hard to get the numbers of young people, and it is an ageing demographic,” she said.

Millard added that many volunteers juggle multiple commitments. In Port Campbell, it is common to see CFA members also active in the surf lifesaving club or SES. 

The merger, she said, was designed to free up more members for frontline firefighting rather than administration. “Generally [people] want to put the wet stuff on the red stuff, they want to get on a truck, and they want to do stuff.”

With forecasts pointing to a dangerous season ahead, Millard said brigades are determined to be prepared. 

“Even though it’s raining at the moment, and we had 25ml on [Thursday] down this way, I think there is still some concern up north about capacity in dams and that sort of thing,” she said. 

“It’s always difficult to know; with the weather how it’s been, you don’t feel like you’re coming into summer at the minute, but that can change in a couple of weeks if we get some more warmer weather.”

The CFA will hold a training exercise for the Apostles group in October.