By Parker McKenzie
After decades of committing himself to firefighting, Ferntree Gully CFA’s Robert ‘Toddy’ Small was honoured with an Australian Fire Services Medal during the Australia Day honours.
“It’s certainly very nice to receive the award. It’s an honour, a humbling experience,” he said.
“But it’s also about other people; I think that’s important to remember.”
Mr Small received his AFSM for over 47 years volunteering with the CFA, first at Bayswater Fire Station in 1974 and then at the Ferntree Gully Fire Brigade since 1984.
He said firefighting has been a “family tradition.”
“Both my eldest brothers and brother-in-law were members and I just sort of got dragged down there at Bayswater, and aside from the move up the gully, I’m still there,” he said.
“It’s changed a lot: some of it for the better, some of it not so much for the better. Equipment-wise, training-wise, we are a lot better off, but I guess the world was a lot simpler, it was a simpler organisation, just like everything in life.”
Mr Small’s daughters Darcy and Matilda have followed in his footsteps by joining the CFA, with his youngest daughter Tilly still a part of Ferntree Gully CFA and coming up on a decade of service.
He said he has made lifelong friends within the organisation, including some who he first met in Bayswater over 47 years ago.
“Once you make friends, and there are people all over the state that I’ve met, you might not see them for two or three years but when you run into each other again it’s like nothing has changed,” he said.
“When I got into the CFA I guess that sort of became my hobby and that’s why I’ve stuck at it. It became almost an unpaid part-time job.”
Mr Small has fought fires all across the state and was captain of Ferntree Gully CFA during the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. He has also taken a leading role in training, volunteer input into equipment and procedural innovations.
He said he has also travelled interstate to News South Wales, Queensland and South Australia during his service with the CFA, which also included leadership roles across Bayswater and Knox.
“Some of the other people that received AFSMs in Victoria today have been around for quite a bit longer than I have and have equally given to the community for long periods of time in different ways,” he said.
“Anybody that receives one should see it as a real honour and become part of a fairly small group of people who are rightly being recognised for the service that they’re put in.”
Mr Small thanked whoever nominated him — adding that he doesn’t know who it was — and his family for supporting him throughout his service in the CFA.
“Ultimately, everybody’s got a family of one sort or another sitting at home, waiting for them, either eating dinner or being late going out somewhere or missing out, getting away for holidays because they’re tied up doing other things,” he said.
“It’s nice for me to receive the award but it’s as much a recognition for my family, for what they put up with over the full 47 years, but certainly about 30 of it anyway, missing out on all sorts of things over the time because I’ve been tied up or disappearing for fires interstate for ten days.”
