The koala who grew up with CFS

There are a few things that have changed about Smokey the Koala over the years.

His uniform, for one. His face has had the occasional refresh. Photographs from the archives reveal several iterations of the familiar grey koala, each unmistakably of its time.

But for generations of South Australians, the job has remained much the same.

Smokey has been the friendly face of fire safety, helping to take messages that can be serious and make them easier for children and families to understand.

As CFS marks 50 years, Smokey’s story offers a slightly different way of looking back at the organisation’s history. In fact, he was already well established by the time CFS came along.

Smokey first appeared in 1961, in the days of the Fire Protection Committees and Emergency Fire Service, before going on to become a familiar part of CFS for generations of South Australians.

While appliances, uniforms, equipment and the way we communicate have all changed, he has been there for a remarkable amount of it.

A familiar face

Smokey became particularly familiar to South Australian families through the 1980s and 1990s.

Long before social media, getting fire safety messages into communities often meant doing it face-to-face. Smokey was very good at getting out and about, appearing at community events, schools, shows and CFS activities, with plenty of pins, bookmarks and other Smokey memorabilia finding their way home along the way.

He also had a life beyond the standard mascot duties.

Through Project Fireguard, Smokey appeared in fire safety pantomimes alongside Peter Mills, former Publicity Officer at CFS State Headquarters, using performance and magic to teach children about fire and what to do in an emergency.

Over the years, he also mixed with some well-known South Australian identities, especially at Smokey’s birthday parties.

One of the biggest celebrations was held at Adelaide Zoo in 1980, when around 3,000 children turned out, joined by familiar television and radio personalities, including Fat Cat.

There was a CFS helicopter, plenty of entertainment and, memorably, a birthday cake that refused to light in the wind. Happy Valley CFS eventually solved the problem with the aptly named ‘Fire Demon’ — perhaps more firepower than most birthday cakes have required before or since.

Still on the job

Fifty years of CFS history is inevitably told through major fires, new technology and equipment, and the thousands of people who have served their communities. But it is also found in the smaller things people remember.

Firefighting may be the most visible part of what CFS does, but helping people understand fire risk and make safer decisions has long been part of the work too. For children in particular, Smokey gave that work a recognisable face.

A lot has changed since a grey koala first started talking to South Australian children about fire safety in 1961. Smokey included.

He may have changed his look a few times along the way, but after all these years, South Australia’s best-known firefighting koala is still on the job.