18/05/2025
'THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS FROM The Courier BALLARAT. MANY THANKS!
I'm out and I'm never going back': CFA members forming private units Country Fire Authority volunteers are leaving the service in droves in response to the Victorian government's Emergency Services and Volunteers Levy.
Hundreds of members across the state have been symbolically hanging their uniforms on fences to show they're "done" after being "hung out to dry" by the levy.
As the levy passed in the early morning of May 16, more than 160 CFA brigades across all 21 Victorian fire districts had taken themselves offline in protest. Coghills Creek farmer Lachlan Wrigley - who had been the first to post a picture of his CFA uniform hanging on his front fence - said the levy had pushed many members over the edge. "It could be the beginning of the end for the CFA," Mr Wrigley said.
"It will definitely drive a lot of people away."
'At least 1000 appliances offline'
Elmhurst CFA lieutenant Myles Keith recorded footage on the afternoon of May 15 of tanker after tanker calling into emergency dispatch and taking themselves offline.
Mr Keith said 24 hours later his radio still has tankers calling in to go offline. "There would be easily 1000 appliances offline across the state by now. Easily," he said.
"The whole of the Pyrenees and Westmere districts are offline now, and that's every single appliance.
"I personally think it would put us into a state of emergency if they admitted how many were offline."
He also recorded a call in to dispatch from a tanker in south-west Victoria with a message asking Jacinta Allan to visit so they could "tell her to get f---ed ourselves".
Mr Keith said that message was "one of many" with similar sentiments. 'It's morally bloody hard'
Mr Keith said the decision to go offline wasn't taken lightly.
"We don't do this for money or fame, we do it to help the community," he said.
"If it's a random person travelling down the Pyrenees Highway and they crash their car, it's probably my face they'll see first.
But he said he and his family and mates had all "just had enough". He said his family were facing a $70,000 bill under the new levy at the same time they had been forced to buy $10,000 in hay because of Victoria's drought and were still trying to recover from losing 1000 acres of land in a bushfire.
"My family can't even afford to pay me, that's how hard farming is at the moment, and the government decides to shove this down our throats," he said. "All my mates are fed up, they've had enough. They've strung their overalls up on the fence to rot."
The government has provided for a levy rebate for eligible volunteers, but has limited the number of properties it can apply to, meaning many will still be forking out tens of thousands of dollars.
Mr Wrigley said it was a slap in the face for the government to wring money out of people who gave their time for free.
"Those recent Grampians fires, if they'd had to pay the firefighters they wage bill would have come to $1.8 million. Now they want us to pay them," he said. "How do we all find this extra money when we are already donating tens of thousands of hours of our time?"
Volunteers 'going private'
Tim Turner is a CFA member in Berrybank south-west of Ballarat, or he was until he burned his uniform. "I've been in the CFA for 24 years, but I'm out and I'm never going back," Mr Turner said.
"It serves them right, treating us like that."
Mr Turner said he and all his neighbours in the region would be leaving the CFA and "going private".
"We will all be alright in our area. We've all got our own private units with ex-CFA appliances we've bought," he said.
"If there's a fire at a neighbour's property they'll just get on the phone and we'll help them out. We don't need the CFA, 80 to 90 per cent of people in our area have their own private units." 'You just hope this won't end in tragedy'
But Mr Wrigley said the volunteer exodus and wave of units going dark had left parts of the state "extremely vulnerable".
"We should all be worried," he said.
"You might say 'It's alright I don't have land so bushfires aren't an issue,' but anyone can get into a car accident.
"If the volunteers are gone, who is going to help you?" CFA Acting Chief Officer Garry Cook sought to "reassure the community" on the afternoon of May 16 about the organisation's response capacity.
"We have operating procedures in place to ensure that when brigades are offline we can respond neighbouring brigades to protect communities or put in place alternative arrangements," Acting Chief Officer Cook said.
"The safety of life and property is always our number one priority. We expect that our brigades will turn out to protect their communities as they always have done in their time of need."
But he also acknowledged CFA volunteers were doing it tough. "We respect their rights to engage in matters relevant to their local communities, including those who are concerned about the potential impact of the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund," he said.
