Our Work & Projects
The ACTVBA is a charitable organisation run by volunteer firefighters for volunteer firefighters. The Association has no paid staff. Despite this, we strive to complete agreed projects which are designed to support the health and well-being of our member volunteer firefighters, at a service, brigade, and individual level, as needed. We rely on our members to bring their wishes and concerns to the Association either through their brigade VBA Committee representatives or directly to the VBA. We aim to work cooperatively with the Executive of the ACT Rural Fire Service (ACTRFS) and the ACT Emergency Services Agency (ESA).
It’s hard to think about bushfires without heroic firefighters coming to mind. Facing down blazing walls of fire, cradling injured animals, evacuating vulnerable and frightened Aussies clutching a few precious belongings – these are the images that dominate our social feeds and TV news footage during the worst bushfire seasons. What we sometimes forget is that the majority of these firefighters are volunteers, putting their own safety on the line for their community or for communities around them. For example, of the 82,480 people who responded to the Black Summer bushfires of 2019 and 2020, 64,500 were volunteers.1 Of the 33 people who lost their lives, nine were firefighters……
Source: Department of Health and Aged Care – Supporting bushfire responders after the fires, September 2022
At the Little Burley Markets in 2023.
2025 - The 40th Anniversary of the ACT VBA
2025 is the 40th Anniversary of the ACT Volunteer Brigades Association. which was established in the wake of the 1984-1985 fires in Canberra.
Early in the 1984-85 bushfire season the ACT Volunteer Brigades Association held their inaugural meeting at Forestry House, Yarralumla. Six brigades represented Majura, Fairlight, Hall, Williamsdale, Tidbinbilla and Tharwa/Naas. Theirs was literally a baptism of fire.
The 1984-85 fire season proved to be the worst to date. The relatively wet winter and spring resulted in heavy growth of all vegetation but particularly of grass; when followed by a hot dry summer the potential for both grass and bush fires was extreme. Although most of the 186 fires were quickly contained, several burned out of control. There were extensive fires on Mount Ainslie, Black Mountain, Mount Majura, Mount Taylor and Red Hill, and fires encroached on Holt, Tharwa and the Sundown Drive-in. Three burned out of control into New South Wales, causing the death of a NSW Volunteer fire fighter. By the end of the season 10,000 hectares of pasture and bushland in the ACT had been burned out, and a further 18,000 hectares in NSW, and 7,000 head of stock had perished.
Those fighting the fires were drawn from every professional and volunteer organisation in the ACT, including units within government departments such as Parks and Conservation, CSIRO, the Royal Military College and the Defence Forces and many individuals. The ACT Fire Brigade was heavily involved on two fronts – while assisting with the bushfires, fires from gas leaks and other causes kept them busy in town, the most spectacular being a fire in the roof of the National Library that threatened to destroy both the building and its contents……
SOURCE: The Canberra Times, 13 March, page 7 The ACT Firefighter
Our Major Fundraising Project for 2025 - Hands Across Canberra, Canberra Day Appeal.
$1,014 raised to date. Please support your local volunteer firefighters by donating today.
Please donate today to support a local volunteer firefighter!
Photograph by Brett Vey taken at the Charley’s Forest-Nerriga Fires 21-22 December 2019
The 2019-2020 Australia Bushfire Season Commemorative Book - A Volunteer Firefighter Perspective
The 2019-2020 bushfire season in Australia was unprecedented. The volunteer firefighters of the ACTRFS worked tirelessly through a devastating and unrelenting season, both at home and interstate. The VBA formed a book committee and worked for over a year to produce a limited edition, hardcover photo-journal coffee table book, Ablaze, which reflects the work of our ACTRFS volunteer firefighters from Queensland, throughout NSW, and in the ACT during the 2019-2020 season.. The book is for sale from our website and also by invoice to actvolunteersbrigades@gmail.com. All proceeds go to support our volunteer firefighters.
‘A Great Days Work’ - three volunteer firefighters from the ACTRFS Molonglo Brigade returning from the Charley’s River-Nerriga fires in December 2019. Photograph by Brett Vey.
New ACT Volunteer Brigades Association Constitution
The ACT VBA Constitution (or its Rules) were last updated in 2013. Since 2020, the VBA has worked to revise its Rules including through the comprehensive consultation of its member brigades,. The amended Rules were approved by VBA Committee in late 2023 and submitted to Access Canberra. The amended rules ensure that the purpose and goals of the VBA best support and serve our volunteer firefighters. One of the main changes brought in by the amended Rules was to create a new level of membership. This means that all individual firefighters in the ACT are now automatically members of the Association. We continue to have brigade-level memberships which require payment of an annual fee of $50.00.
‘In the Thick of It’. Photograph by Jacob Lemmey taken at the Charley’s Forest-Nerriga Fires in December 2019
The VBA Website
The VBA designed this website in 2020 to provide a ‘one-stop shop’ for all things volunteering for our ACT Rural Fire Service volunteer firefighters and our member brigades. Our website is a work in progress designed and maintained by volunteer firefighters. If you would like to contribute photographs or stories or if you have any suggestions for improvements or inclusions please email us at actvolunteerbrigades@gmail.com.
‘A Dangerous Business’. Photograph by Sean Lang
Presumptive Legislation for our Volunteers
Presumptive legislation is legislation which is intended to reduce fights about certain worker’s compensation claims. This particular legislation provides that where firefighters who have worked for certain periods as firefighters are diagnosed with certain prescribed conditions, primarily some types of cancers, it will be assumed that those conditions were caused by their firefighting service. In such cases, the firefighter will be entitled to workers compensation without having to prove the connection between their firefighting work and their illness.
The VBA intended to explore the introduction of presumptive legislation for our ACT Rural Fire Service volunteer firefighters in 2020. We are pleased that the need for this work was negated by the November 2020 final report into the review of the firefighter provisions of the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (SRC Act) The final report was provided to the Commonwealth Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations. The Commonwealth government has accepted the report’s recommendations and intention that key stakeholders will be consulted in the implementation of the recommendations, including amendments to the SRC Act.
The review recommended:
The qualifying period for oesophageal cancer be reduced from 25 years to 15 years;
The current list of prescribed diseases at subsection 7(8) of the Act should be expanded to include malignant mesothelioma with a qualifying period of 15 years;
The Attorney-General’s Department should continue to periodically examine the available scientific literature to ensure the list of prescribed diseases remains consistent with current science, with a particular focus on female reproductive cancers, malignant melanoma and lung cancer in non-smoking firefighters;
Lung cancer (whether in smokers or non-smokers) should not be included in the list of prescribed diseases;
The firefighter provisions of the SRC Act be extended to persons taken to be employed by the Australian Capital Territory by operation of a declaration made under subsection 5(15) of the SRC Act (volunteer firefighters); and
Comcare should continue to investigate measures that provide more timely access to compensation for claimants under the firefighter provisions…..