WHENEVER bushfires roar from rural forests to the urban fringe, it’s all hands to the pumps. Strike teams board tanker trucks to brave the unfolding horror and aerial fire-bombers swoop above blackened mountains.
Victoria’s battles against bushfire have long been a familiar story, from Ash Wednesday in 1983 to the still-raw memories of Black Saturday in 2009.
Behind the scenes, Barry Marsden and the equipment development team at the North Altona fire cache have remodelled, re-equipped and rebadged the way we fight fires today.
“On the news, you see fires going and you see fire trucks and aircraft, but to know what goes on in the background to get to that stage, to
be able to fight fires, is another story,” Mr Marsden said.
The Seabrook resident, 68, has received one of the nation’s highest awards, appointed as a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday honours list for his work within the emergency services sector, developing innovative firefighting equipment and technology.
“Things have changed,” he said.
“On Ash Wednesday everything was manual. Common pumps were basic, firefighters would wear a pair of overalls and various types of boots, whereas today helmets are heat-resistant, we wear neck flaps, goggles and respirators, trucks have spray protection systems, better fire-line hoses electronic water gauges and vehicles can be tracked.”
Growing up in Orbost in Victoria’s far east, Mr Marsden quickly developed a broad knowledge of the bush, its climate and ecology.
“My father was a bulldozer operator at a local mill, and on days off from school, I’d be out on the dozers with him. I understood the forest from a very young age. In Australia, the remoteness and lack of water is the big issue, and if you’ve got water, you need to utilise it as effectively as possible. Water being assisted with class-A foam concentrate can make the tanker load three times more effective.”
For 44 years, pioneering new methods of mixing chemicals for tankers or fire-bombers and improving equipment for ignition systems has been Mr Marsden’s day job.
He recalls his crew of up to 30 staff at the North Altona centre toiling tirelessly behind the scenes during some of the state’s worst bushfire seasons.
“In a busy fire period there’s orders being rung through every day, trucks come to the cache, crews are set up, equipment is packed out, packed in boxes, ready to go, loaded onto the trucks. They might do three different pick-ups a day, continually going out to different fire bases to support the crews. We might start at 6 in the morning and work until midnight.”
He said the most rewarding part of the job has been to see how firefighting technology has developed.
“It’s not until you stop and look at it and say, ‘my God, we’ve really made a difference here and we’ve come a long way’.”
Mr Marsden described receiving the Queen’s Birthday honour as “overwhelming”.
