Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
Living in a rural area can come with its complications, and even idyllic Tamborine is no exception. When danger calls, it’s a good thing we have people like Terry Watkins, First Officer for the Tamborine Rural Fire Brigade, a volunteer organisation of local heroes protecting our community since 1967. Today he shares the ins and outs of heading such an important group, as well as some thrilling tales from the line of duty.
by Kyle Hitchmough
Besides fighting fires, what other kinds of duties does the brigade have?
We may help in flood rescue, which for us here is very pertinent because we can get isolated. There’s rescuing pets stuck up trees, I’ve done that! We do a lot of road crash rescue here in our brigade, we attend all instances in our area, we assist the Fire and Rescue boys in that role. We do community engagement stuff too, each year we participate in the Carols by Candlelight with the Lions Club, supporting them. We do community education, we’ll go to the markets up here about twice a year to give people information and advice on things. Sometimes we assist Queensland Ambulance Service with patient lifts and things like that. It can be quite varied at times in what the jobs are.
Are there any necessary skills needed to volunteer?
No, as long as you’re over 16. You do have to undergo a criminal history check and a Blue Card check to become a member, but other than that no skills are necessary, it’s all taught. If you’re coming in as a base firefighter, those skills are taught right from the base level.
What kinds of skills can you gain from volunteering?
Your firefighting skills, which you probably can’t use anywhere else, but there are other skills like specialist training in chainsaw operation. It’s not an easy thing to get onto, since we don’t train everybody in chainsaw use. Four-wheel-driving, when that comes up. In case of our brigade here, you can gain your first aid certificate plus your advanced certificate, since we operate Oxy-Viva here in this brigade, so you get taught how to use that as part of your advanced first aid.
How did you get started with firefighting?
I originally started in New South Wales, I was born and bred on the land there. Back in those days, if you were born a boy, you were automatically part of the bushfire brigades, and I’ve been doing it since I was small. Last month I clocked up 45 years of service in total in two states. I went through the ranks to what they call a group captain in New South Wales, and I’ve done the equivalent here in Queensland, in charge of the brigade. I’m a group officer for the Beaudesert group here.
How many volunteers do you have here?
We’ve got potentially about 32, 33 qualified firefighters and there are a few others who are waiting to be trained. I’ve got 4 waiting. We’ve got three trucks, two dual-cab fires is what we call them, or medium appliances in Queensland, then we have what we call a light attack, which is a Nissan Patrol. If I have to, I can fit them all out at once.
How can someone interested go about volunteering?
They can contact their local brigade. Most local brigades have a Facebook page these days, and that’s the easiest way if you get on that and send them a message. Normally on the Facebook page there’s also a contact number. Or, if they’re driving past their local station, they often have a board like ours, which has my direct mobile number at the bottom, so they can talk to whatever the contact number is. Sometimes it’s the secretary, sometimes it’s the first officer.
What’s an average work day for you look like here?
Probably 60% brigades in the South Coast area meet each week for training. We have training nights, we do truck checks, we go out and do stack burns which is part of training since you’re learning about fire. Some brigades do a weekend every now and then… each brigade is a little bit different on when they meet, but here we meet each Tuesday night. I own the Shell, plus I sit on the board of directors for Bendigo Bank at Canungra. Between that and this, I don’t have a lot of spare time. When people say “what do you do to relax?” I say “Go and fight bushfires.”
What’s your opinion on the Tamborine area and community?
I grew up in a rural area. It’s the open space. Room to breathe, so to speak. I can’t live in a town, it’s not me.
What do you enjoy most about doing this?
Probably the camaraderie that you can get with other firefighters, it’s protecting your community, not just our community, the community in general. I’ll go anywhere and fight a fire, and I have. Most blokes, if they’re capable, will deploy anywhere. Most of the time you deploy to give the firefighters who are there a rest, because they’ve been going hell for leather for maybe two, three weeks with no rest.
What’s been your most memorable moment in your time with the brigade?
Probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done was back in New South Wales in 1993. We were protecting a sawmill, and we had fire go around and over the top of us. It wasn’t till a couple of days later when the adrenaline was back down to normal levels that we realised we were lucky we walked out of that without anybody getting hurt. Hearing a crown fire coming through, that’s one of the things that always sticks in your memory, you never lose it. It sounds like a bloody big freight train coming straight at you. Once you hear it, you never forget it again.
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