By JESSE GRAHAM
FIRE-FIGHTERS and friends in Monbulk will be gathering at the start of September to make 75 years in the community, and residents are being invited along to the party.
From 6.30pm on Saturday, 3 September, a dinner will be held at the Monbulk Bowling Club on Moores Road to celebrate Monbulk CFA’s 75th birthday.
Brigade member Peter Edyvane said the evening would be a chance for past and present brigade members to get together with visitors and display photos and stories from the last three quarters of a century.
The brigade was formed at a public meeting in the Monbulk Hall on 8 September, 1941. Mr Edyvane said that one member, Wally Appleby, missed the meeting.
“The next night, at cricket practice, he said ‘How’d the meeting go for the fire brigade?’, and they said ‘It went really well – you’re the captain’,” he said.
In 1945, the Monbulk Fire Brigade was renamed the Monbulk Rural Fire Brigade to coincide with the formation of the CFA. That year, the brigade also received its first truck, an ex-World War II Chevrolet Blitz with a tank and water pump.
Mr Edyvane said the brigade has been supported by the Monbulk CFA Ladies Auxiliary, now the Brigade Auxiliary, since 1944 through fund-raising and feeding members – a feeding caravan purchased by the auxiliary in 1967 continued to serve firefighters until the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires.
With the brigade undertaking road rescues officially since 1983 – and unofficially before then – and rope rescues more recently, Mr Edyvane said the brigade “undoubtedly” saved dozens of lives over the years.
He said Monbulk’s rope rescue skills were often called on in areas outside of the area, with members conducting rescues as far as Mansfield and Seymour when required.
On 3 September, the members and supporters of the brigade will be able to sit down for a meal and celebrate the history of the town’s firefighters.
Tickets for the evening are $25, and Mr Edyvane said anyone wanting to attend and celebrate would be welcome. To purchase tickets, or for more information, call Karen Noonan on 0414 977 514.
