Australia? Anyone?

[*Chinaman*]

Hi! I'm from a Volunteer Fire Brigade in South Australia - Oakbank Balhannah Country Fire Service Brigade. Although I'm not sick of it, it annoys me to read so much about what is going on in rural areas in the United States. Maybe we can share some information that will help all of us along and which is not topic specific to the United States. We often have bad Wildfires here too and I would love to hear of experiences, lessons learned, suggestions from Australian firefighters too; this doesn't mean that I am stopping US firefighters from replying, but let's talk on the same wavelenght.
Hope to hear from anyone soon!

[Aussie Fire]

Howdy China, volunteer from Victoria Aust here,hows things in your neck of the woods ,all pretty quiet here

[*Chinaman*]

Well just for a short update what has been happening here in South Australia: The local government has introduced a tax called the Emergency services tax. 90% of this tax will fund a new radio network which we do not need and the remaining 10% will go to the Emergency services (Country Fire Service, State Emergency Service...just to name a couple). We are in fact getting less funding than was we had before the new tax. Fuerther the tax will hit locals very very hard. So the people of South Australia are now taking it out on the emrgency services (ie. "Come and chop up my wood 'coz I am now paying taxes for you guys to exist"). Life is getting pretty hard. All the fundraising activities we used to have can probably be kissed goodbye as well, since the residents will say that they have already paid us enough money through the tax. What will happen next we do not know. We have a total budget of about A$23Million this year and this will probably see us thgrough for 9 months.
On the other side, we are not seing too much Wildfire action currently, since it's winter here. But people still speed on the wet roads which exposes us to lots of Vehicle Accidents, and we are currently having quite a few chimney fires and 'heater burning rugs' fires....so that is what is happing our end.

[Bigegg]

Chinaman

Bigegg from NSW Rural Fire Service here!
I doesnt matter where in the world you go you will always find a Aussie!
Its good to see that we can contribute to someting to the world wide fire family. The forums here are great and has helped me in many ways.
It sounds like a lot of the porblems that we have in NSW are the same all over the country and the the rest of the world.
I had a look at your web site (Good Stuff). How old is the F350??

Weather wise, we have had a bit of rain lately but when the fuel loadings are a bit to high for my liking. It could be a interesting Xmas.

Stay safe
And may the wind always be at your back!

Bigegg


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[*Chinaman*]

Hi Bigegg!

Just a short reply to your question about our Ford F350. It's almost 16 years old and it's still going...and going...and going. This is the only unit that is actually owned by the Brigade itself, so we can do with it what we want. We will try to get the full 20 years out of the good 'ol 350, but when she has to move on, we'll definitely replace her with something similar. But like they say, if it's not broken, why fix it or replace it?
So she'll stay with us for another couple more years.

[Tom Lafleur]

Hi Chinaman: Greetings from Massachusetts USA. Seems that you have the same problem there that we have here,goverment putting their noses in where they don't belong. Liked your web page,Well put together.
Stay Safe
Tom