A century on the frontline: SA's oldest brigade

In the shadow of the Southern Flinders Ranges, in the state’s Mid North, lives South Australia’s oldest Country Fire Service (CFS) brigade. 

Almost 110 years ago, the Wirrabara Fire Fighting Committee – now Wirrabara CFS – held its first official meeting, but the brigade’s service predates its official establishment in 1917.

Wirrabara volunteer Greg Pech (pictured) has been with the brigade for 52 years, almost half of the brigade’s lifetime. 

“Things have certainly changed. In the early days, when I first joined up, people rang up the post office to report a fire then they’d race to the shed and sound the siren,” Greg said.

“I just get a lot of satisfaction from helping people. People come and say ‘thanks for coming over to our fire and helping me out with that’ and they appreciate what we do.” 

In its century of service, the brigade and its volunteers have attended hundreds of incidents, but it was the 2014 Bangor fire that left the biggest impact on the local community. 

The Bangor fire 

Across January and February 2014, the Bangor fire burned more than 35,000 hectares over 31 days.

Wirrabara volunteers were on the frontline, defending their local communities at Laura, Stone Hut, Beetaloo Valley, and their own township when the fire broke control lines on 8 February. 

“I was really proud of our brigade in that fire. We kept our truck going 24/7 for nearly the whole month that fire lasted,” Greg said. 

“A lot of mates from the Adelaide Hills came up and stayed in our house and manned a few shifts on the truck.”

Mount Remarkable CFS Group Officer and Wirrabara CFS volunteer Tony Tenney was also on the ground throughout the Bangor fire. In conjunction with then Regional Commander Bluey Devine and Booleroo CFS Captain Todd Orrock, Tony was part of the team that devised a plan to have local Farm Fire Units (FFUs) defend the eastern flank of the fire. 

“That fire came out of the (Wirrabara) forest like a furnace … you could hear the roar coming,” Tony said. 

“The FFUs protected the eastern flank of the town for nearly 4 or 5 days straight, they were brilliant. 

“We couldn’t run a fire without them out here, we couldn’t go without their support.”

A local legacy 

Current Captain Noel Curtis has held the captaincy since 2016, but his family has lived in the Wirrabara area for more than 140 years. 

Sitting at the helm of the state’s oldest brigade isn’t without challenges.

But with around 20 current volunteers, the brigade continues to support the local community and surrounding brigades in Laura and Gladstone.

“Our primary interest is to make sure we have an incident response as quick as possible and that’s the most important thing we can do,” Noel said. 

“We’d like to keep the membership up and the community certainly needs that support and quick reaction from us.” 

Wirrabara CFS Captain Noel Curtis, then CFS Chief Officer Greg Nettleton, and Mount Remarkable CFS Group Officer Tony Tenney celebrating Wirrabara CFS's centenary in 2017.