By Gabriella Payne
For over fifty years now, Brian Petrie has been dedicating his life to helping keep communities safe through his tireless work with the CFA, and his wealth of knowledge, skills and all the sacrifices he’s made to help others over the years have now been recognised at the top level – and deservedly so.
On Monday 14 June, Brian, a Gembrook local, was awarded the prestigious Australian Fire Service Medal (AFSM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his years of service to the Country Fire Authority (CFA).
A resilient, inspiring yet humble man, Brian said the news came as a bit of a shock and he had never expected to receive this kind of recognition for doing something he loved.
“I’m a bit overwhelmed really,” Brian said.
“I’ve had plenty of rewards throughout my time in the CFA, but it’s watching people that I’ve trained doing their tasks well and working through the ranks from being a firefighter right up to incident controllers that’s been my real reward.”
Following in his parents footsteps, Brian said he became involved with firefighting at a young age after watching both his mother and stepfather volunteer their time with the Basin Fire Brigade – but it was after a tragic accident that his commitment to the CFA really took hold.
“Growing up in the Basin we had all the fires in the late 50s and early 60s, but when I was about 10 years old, our house was burnt to the ground about five days before Christmas,” Brian said.
“That was a real shock, my sister was home and we had to rescue the elderly lady that was in the other half of the house and my poor dog got shot because they couldn’t get him out from under the tank stand, so that was sort of the first time I’d really been involved,” he said.
Brian said he remembered the fire brigade coming to the rescue, but sadly his childhood home was lost in the flames and his family were left homeless, with only the clothes on their backs and the community support around them to keep them going.
After moving into a rental home thanks to the help of other locals, Brian remembered joining up as a volunteer at the Basin Fire Brigade as soon as he could – at the ripe old age of 13.
“If you were big enough to carry a nap sack, you were old enough to be in,” he laughed.
Since then, Brian has gone on to establish himself as a role model for countless CFA and community members and has helped fight fires on the ground and with his operational expertise at “nearly every major fire since the 60s” – a truly remarkable effort.
Brian holds the Chief Officer’s accreditation for Level 3 IMT roles and has used his operational experience and leadership in command roles to help extinguish numerous significant fires, both in Victoria and interstate.
“I’ve been lucky to work in that many incident management teams around the state, with great teams and great people, so you always pick something up because you’re always learning,” he said.
Being on call for years and having left for weeks at a time to volunteer his services with major fires from one end of the state to the other, Brian’s long time family friend and now partner Ronda wanted to make a special mention of his late wife, Lynette, who had been a rock of support for him over all his years of firefighting.
“She was an absolutely wonderful lady, and sadly we lost her to cancer in 2017,” Ronda said.
“I think she deserves a big mention, because over the years she just backed everything he did and ran the farm and the place here and he could be away for weeks on end… she would just be so proud of him,” she said.
The Captain of the Gembrook CFA, Andrew Clark, said that he and the brigade couldn’t think of anyone more deserving of the award and wanted to congratulate him on an incredible career.
“On Behalf of the Gembrook CFA as Captain, I would like to congratulate Brian on this achievement, it is long overdue for the tireless work he has done for the CFA and especially the Gembrook CFA,” he said.
“We, as a brigade, would not be in the position we are in now if it wasn’t for Brian’s work as Captain for over 20 years.
Brian continues to be an active fire fighter in the brigade and mentors a lot of the brigade members with his vast fire knowledge. Congratulations Brian,” Mr Clark said.
Brian said he had seen firefighting change “heaps” over the years and was looking forward to seeing the industry and CFA services continue to progress into the future, as he has no plans of slowing down anytime soon.
“If someone needs a hand, well you help, because it always comes back,” he said.
