PRECEDE
When Eric Bumpstead first enlisted in the CFA, he never imagined he would come up against one of Australia’s most catastrophic fires. He spoke to ROWAN FORSTER about his journey from riding a horse-drawn cart to deliver meat, to defending an entire community.
Eric Bumpstead fought off the ferocious Ash Wednesday fires, mingled with Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana in Cockatoo and now he has been recognised as one of Cardinia’s most tireless volunteers.
The 85-year-old was “honoured” to receive the 2018 Stan Henwood Award at Cardinia Shire’s volunteer reception on 31 May.
Boasting a stellar career as Beaconsfield’s Country Fire Authority captain for 24 years, Mr Bumpstead drew a huge ovation from the crowd as he took to the stage.
Born in Pakenham in 1932, Mr Bumpstead said the town had a very different atmosphere to the Pakenham of today.
“It was completely rural, none of this development,” he said.
“Most of the land along the Princes Highway was owned by Hentys, and it was used purely as sheep property.”
He discovered his forte – fighting fires – at a very young age, and never looked back.
It all began in his formative years, when he was aboard a horse and cart with his father delivering meat for the Pakenham Butchery.
“I was with him coming back from Officer when we noticed a fire beside the road,” he said.
“In those days, you’d break a gum branch off a tree and beat it with the stick until it was extinguished.
“That got me interested in joining the Country Fire Authority.”
In 1957, Mr Bumpstead officially joined the CFA, based out of his Guys Hill property – where he has lived ever since.
The early days were tough for the volunteer and decorated firefighter, who said resources were slim and technologies weren’t overly advanced.
“Obviously a lot has changed since those days,” he said.
“One of the big things was not having any stress or trauma support.
“You just kind of had to deal with it and move on.”
As captain of the CFA’s Upper Beaconsfield brigade, Mr Bumpstead’s staffing levels became strained when many of his colleagues gave up the trade to take up work in Dandenong and Narre Warren.
“A lot of the firefighting at that time was left to the farmers and the neighbours,” he said.
“They’d just try and band together and do what they could do to put out a fire.”
In 1981, it came at a time when fire brigades were manned entirely by men.
“It was unheard of to have women in the brigade, nobody would have allowed it,” he said.
But Mr Bumpstead made the brave decision to take seven women under his wing and train them in firefighting.
They would later be dubbed “Eric’s Angels”.
“I started teaching them to man the radios and eventually they decided that work was too tame and they wanted to learn to fight fires,” Mr Bumpstead said.
“I began training them independently from the men in the brigade – even on Sundays – until they were prepared enough to join the brigade.
“Once the blokes saw what they could do, there was no problem.
“That was a bit of a ground breaker.”
Mr Bumpstead’s decision served as precedent-setting across the state, with an ensemble of other brigades following his decision to enlist females.
But his greatest challenge was just around the corner.
On 16 February 1983, the Upper Beaconsfield community was left in tatters after the Ash Wednesday bushfires ravaged the town.
The event claimed 180 homes and 21 lives.
It remains a day that will stay with Mr Bumpstead for the rest of his life.
When asked by the Gazette if it was the scariest moment of his life, Mr Bumpstead replied: “without a doubt”.
“It’s something I will never, ever get over,” he said.
“I was up here on the hill when the wind changed, and I’ll never forget it.”
Mr Bumpstead’s eyes watered as he recalled what happened to his colleagues.
“The firetrucks got trapped heading towards St Georges Road when the flames changed direction,” he said.
“We lost two trucks and 12 firefighters.
“It was so traumatic that you can’t even begin to describe it.”
He detailed the sense of loss felt from the devastating fires, spanning wider than many would even suspect.
“One memory that sticks in my mind was seeing two older women lose their home,” he said.
“They were great crafters who spent their entire lives making things and they lost everything.
“At that age, it was too late for them to rebuild.
“Many were reluctant to evacuate and leave everything behind.
“They wanted to stay and defend their homes.”
The former Upper Beaconsfield CFA captain said the aftermath continued for months, with much of the community traumatised by the destruction.
However, the tide began to turn when the royals, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, announced they would visit those affected, including mourning relatives of loved ones who had perished.
Mr Bumpstead was bestowed with the honour of guiding the royals through the fire-struck town.
“I think (the visit) helped the morale of the community a lot,” he said.
“It showed them they weren’t on their own
“They (Charles and Diana) were very conscious that they didn’t want to be the main focus.
“They were there genuinely to support the victims and they didn’t want to feel as though they were strangers pushing into the area.
“They asked us a couple of times what we thought about it and if we thought it was appropriate or not.“
Mr Bumpstead also recalls getting into a stoush with British journalists and photographers at the scene.
According to Mr Bumpstead, members of the foreign press were abrasive with locals, asking them to “get out of the way” of pictures.
“I saw what they were doing so I decided to confront them,” he said.
“I said, these are the relatives of the victims and this is their day, not yours.
“That got them to back down.”
While Mr Bumpstead is still a registered member of the brigade, he now lends his expertise behind the scenes.
He currently sits on Cardinia Shire’s bushfire management sub-committee, providing advice to prevent catastrophic blazes.
