In nsw what was the rural fire service originally known as?

Answer 1

The history of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) is really a short long one. What do you mean "long short one"? Well, if you'll care to read the rest of the answer...

Australia is the driest continent on the earth, and therefore its no surprise that the high temperatures combine with the other climatic conditions to create ideal conditions for fires to form. Or some crazy guy could just go around lighting fires but more to the point, Australia's climate is mainly responsible.

Being the smart people they are It didn't take the citizens of many rural towns a long time to figure out:

• Town surrounded by bush.
• Bush is flammable.
• Dry, Hot, Windy weather causes fires.
• Its dry, hot and windy here.
• Potential fire risk of Bush around town.

Something had to be done.

That something was when the citizens of a small town located in South Western NSW called Berrigan (about 100 km North West of Albury) formed their own fire service to protect the established society that they had created (but mainly so they didn't have a total panic attack when a fire formed).

Not necessarily through the influence of Berrigan, but many other towns around the state began to follow suit. 100 years later, the number of fire brigades that were regularly in operation had risen from a lowly one to a more secure two hundred.

Yet what was strange however was the fact that all of these stations were separate. There was no central organisation to... well... organise them. There were other establishments such as the election of a locally appointed fire control officer and then the formation of the Bush Fire Fighting Fund in 1949. From then on the local councils worked in conjunction with the state government when it came to overseeing operations conducted by the individual rural fire service.

Having councils run their own rural fire brigade wasn't doing anyone any harm, but the lack of a centred source of direction was going to be highlighted in the year of 1994.

It was havoc for firefighters all around NSW that year. 800 bushfires, burning 800,000 hectares of land, 205 homes, 120 injuries and 4 deaths. For the first time different fire agencies combined to fight the fires. Supplies, vehicles and members of any rural fire service were flown to different parts of the state that were in need of the most assistance. Everyone started to realise that the benefits of a uniform system were much in need. A single council overseeing its own RFS couldn't have combatted the disaster on their own. Likewise, another council not under threat could have been put to use a great deal quicker with a core corporation.

And that need was addressed in 1997, when at the beginning of the bushfire season Phil Koperberg was appointed commissioner of the newly established New South Wales Rural Fire Service. A system that could let councils relax knowing that a specialist organisation was out there doing the job for them, with more knowledge, and to a better standard.

So now you know what I mean by "a long short one". The services themselves are old, but the actual RFS is only 14 years old. The services before the RFS were simply named after the town, followed by voluntary brigade.