General News
20 June, 2025
Fire brigade welcome more aboard
Maryborough Fire Brigade is on the hunt for volunteers to fulfil a range of duties, open to locals from any walk of life.
Maryborough brigade community Safety Coordinator Raelene Williams said anyone can be trained to fill many components in Maryborough’s brigade.
“Our volunteers are highly trained and make a strong commitment to being ready to respond to our community’s needs. Many of our experienced firefighters are getting older and we can see great benefit in bringing on the next generation of volunteers now. This way they can be mentored, trained and supported by members with a wealth of knowledge,” she said.
While volunteers are currently needed to support Maryborough Fire Brigade, Ms Williams said this is part of a trend seen across regional Victoria.
“The state of Victoria is wide and diverse as is the over 1200 volunteer fire brigades that make up the CFA. In some areas where populations are growing, there are waiting lists for people wanting to join. But the further you get out into regional areas, the more ageing and rural decline in communities are impacting volunteer numbers,” she said.
Ms Williams said they are welcoming various roles in the team.
“We have set ourselves a target of six new operational volunteers, and we are keen to expand our community safety team by three new members,” she said.
“These also include non-operational members, which support the community with schools and community group programs, smoke alarm installations for vulnerable people and pre-fire season awareness programs,” she said.
Maryborough CFA will host an in-person information session next Wednesday night for locals to find out more.
“The session will be giving an overview of our brigade, who we are, our history and what we do,” Ms Williams said.
“We will also cover what commitment is required to become a volunteer with the CFA, and what roles are required here in Maryborough. There will also be time for Q and A and the opportunity to talk directly to brigade members.”
She said notices for recruitment can often be overlooked, due to readers feeling they may not meet a criteria.
“Sometimes we see an advert for a volunteer organisation that says “recruiting now” and we dismiss it, but this is an opportunity to come and hear first hand what being a CFA volunteer involves and how this could be the best thing you can ever do,” Ms Williams said.
Attending the session isn’t a guarantee to join, rather a chance to find out if being a CFA volunteer is for you.
“There is no obligation to join by turning up to the information session, just a great opportunity to consider new beginnings in an organisation that puts community first,” Ms Williams said.
Maryborough CFA Captain Darryl Wagstaff agreed there are various roles any local can fill when joining the brigade.
“At the moment, we have about 32 volunteers on our books, so we need to get extra members to come in so we can have a continuous turn out on members during day and night,” he said.
“We also need to have non-operational fire fighters that we have as members, such as school presenters, but it’s also our operational turn outs, and that we need to have those extra people, to spread the work load out with the current members we have.”
The in-person information night will be at 6.30 pm on Wednesday, June 25 at the Maryborough Fire Station.