General News
13 June, 2025
Stephen awarded King’s Birthday Honour
Maryborough born Superintendent Stephen Walker has been awarded the Australian Fire Services Medal (AFSM) in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours.
Mr Walker was one of nine Royal Fire Service (RFS) members to be awarded the AFSM, in recognition of their dedication and support for the community.
The AFSM is Australia’s highest award, honouring distinguished service by a member of any Australian fire service.
After tirelessly working through the recent floods in New South Wales, Mr Walker said the announcement came as a surprise.
“In May this year, I was incident controller for the northern floods. During that time, I got a notification that consideration had been validated and I would be honoured on King’s Birthday weekend,” he said.
“Coming from the small town Maryborough was when I left it, I never thought I’d be where I am today, doing what I’m doing and to receive an honour like this. It’s absolutely surreal.
“I’m a quiet bloke at the best of times but it’s been very humbling. There are some pretty impressive names on that list, they have done some pretty incredible things in their journeys.”
After leaving Maryborough as a young adult, Mr Walker started with the RFS in 2000 as an operations officer, after 10 years as a firefighting supervisor for the then Department of Natural Resources and Environment in Victoria.
Since 2013, he has been the district manager of the RFS Lower Western district.
“I moved out of Maryborough at around 19 or 20, I’d been working at Safeway, transferred to Kyneton, then Ballarat Central. When I left Woolies, I went back to Maryborough and joined Conservation, Forests and Lands as a fire crew member,” he said.
“I did that for a couple of years, and then got a full time position over in Clunes, and got transferred to Mildura in 1992, that’s where my fiance came from. Got married and worked as a forest and fire management officer from 1992 to 2000, and then went across the river to the Royal Fire Service.”
Mr Walker said he made the career change with a need for working in nature.
“I was sick of being indoors, loved being outdoors, they gave me the opportunity to do that. But being the district manager out here, I’m back indoors now,” he said.
“One of the biggest impacts of my career also was the fire investigations into the Canberra fires in 2003 and the devastation and the loss. That was the single biggest influence, but it also taught me about compassion and the need to look after people.
“I look after 50,000 square kilometres, we’ve got excellent volunteers, the people are fantastic, it’s a really good job and a really good place to be.”
Despite now living nearly four and a half hours away, Mr Walker still enjoys returning to his hometown of Maryborough.
“I love the Mallee but I miss driving back down through St Arnaud and to Maryborough and seeing the hills. Up here it is so flat,” he said.
“I was born in Maryborough, went to school in Maryborough, and I still have family in Maryborough, I still call it home.
“I get back to Maryborough a couple times a year. It’s still a good place, there are still a lot of people there that I know, and a lot of people that are new to the town that I haven’t had the privilege of knowing yet.
“One of my favourite spots is the railway station. That and the square with the Bull and Mouth, post office, the chambers, the law courts, and the real estate agent on the other corner. I like the view you see when you’re looking up Nolan Street from Napier Street.”
While Mr Walker fondly and vividly recalls his many years in Maryborough, his career has taken him all over Australia.
“I have worked in fires and floods, but in fires particularly, from Cairns to Hobart, every state in between, including South Australia. It’s been a great career, I love coming to work every day of the week. If you haven’t got job satisfaction, you shouldn’t be in the job that you’re in. If you don’t enjoy it, you don’t put 100 percent into it,” he said.
“There are so many things I have been able to do, and this organisation has given me those opportunities, and to be able to put stuff back into community in many ways has been one of the things that has got me nominated for this honour.”
Upon receiving the AFSM, Mr Walker said it all wouldn’t be possible without the support from his family.
“The most important thing is for me to be able to do all of this, and achieve what I have achieved, you have got to have support. My wife and my family have been my support throughout my career. There have been missed birthdays, missed events and that sort of thing because of the work that I do. But they have always supported what I do, and say ‘I’ll still be here when you come back’,” he said.
“You don’t always have to be an expert in it because you’re still learning, but you have got to give it 100 percent.”