VFBV

Once again I need to express my deep admiration for the hundreds and hundreds of CFA volunteers from around the state who dropped everything to provide vital surge capacity to those communities in need, including our friends from interstate.

There’s never really enough that can be said about how amazing and admirable our volunteers are. They provide such a huge contribution to the safety and response capacity of CFA and the protection of Victoria.

And as always, we thank the families of volunteers who put up with the disruption and the absences – you are also a major part of why the CFA can succeed.

I also want to thank employers. Some volunteers are self-employed and make personal sacrifices to join strike teams deployed across the state, and many have wonderful employers who are also part of Victoria’s response in their willingness to support the emergency services members who work for them – we thank them for being so understanding and generous.

A lot of people have lost property, pets and livestock in the fires – but importantly, a lot of them have been saved as well, as a direct result of Victoria’s volunteer and career firefighters providing their highly trained and professional response capabilities.

We are still in a very dangerous time of the year, with significant damage potential from the fires already burning and plenty of risk of further fire activity as we have many areas of bush that are still in peak dryness and with high fuel loads. I have received report after report of new fire starts being controlled very quickly and dozens of houses being saved directly because of our firefighters’ efforts. It is the work of CFA volunteers and our valued colleagues that have avoided greater losses and spared many residents from great loss.  As with every fire there will be opportunities to investigate what learnings can be gained and that will happen in due course.

We all know how traumatising fires can be. We understand and sympathise with people who are facing the mountain of challenges that come when fire has ripped through their communities. We also understand that initial reactions come from grief and frustration, and some people need time and space to deal with their loss and the enormity of what they have been through. They deserve our compassion and empathy, and we grieve alongside them.

Victorians are a resilient people, and there’s a reason CFA is one of the most respected fire service models in the world and once again our response to these fires have proven why. 

Take care of yourselves, keep safe and know that we and the people of Victoria are proud of you and have your back. Well done and keep up the good work, there is still much to do.

Andrew Ford
CEO, Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria

VFBV CEO Andrew Ford stepping down as CEO
A message from the VFBV State President Nev Jones AFSM 

VFBV CEO Andrew Ford has advised the VFBV Board of his desire to step down as VFBV CEO as of end April 2019.  While this is sad news for VFBV, I am sure you will share with me in recognising that Andrew has made an outstanding contribution to VFBV, CFA volunteers and the community over many years, and truly deserves our support as he chooses to pursue other career and family objectives.

Andrew was appointed to VFBV CEO in February 2007 and prior to that held various senior management positions as a CFA employee during a 15 year career commencing in 1992, and involving appointments as CFA Manager Corporate Planning and General Manager CFA Westernport Area. 

Through Andrew’s leadership VFBV operates as a highly professional organisation and fortunately, in recognition that this time would eventually arrive, we have a well-established succession strategy in place.  I am pleased to also announce that the VFBV Board has appointed experienced CFA volunteer and VFBV Executive Officer Adam Barnett as the new VFBV CEO  from 1 May 2019.

Andrew has agreed to continue his outstanding commitment to CFA volunteers and stay on with VFBV in a part-time strategic advisory role.  This will allow Andrew to focus his energy and expertise on driving VFBV’s focus on navigating the complex and challenging period ahead that will almost certainly see the Victorian State Government push ahead with its plans to create Fire Rescue Victoria.  As members know, this involves plans to separate operational paid staff out of CFA and discontinue Victoria’s world-renowned model of integrating volunteers and paid staff working as one unified team and VFBV has been very clear that it poses significant risks to the sustainability and effectiveness of CFA.

The VFBV Board is extremely grateful to Andrew for remaining with us in this part-time capacity to support a smooth transition for our new CEO and enable an even stronger focus on navigating the very vulnerable times that the Governments fire service reform agenda will create.  Freeing Andrew up from the day to day leadership of VFBV will allow him to dedicate his significant expertise to help us influence an outcome that can achieve the strongest possible CFA despite the significant downsides of a very flawed fire service reform proposition.

In addition to continuing part time with VFBV, Andrew will be pursuing some other career interests and taking the opportunity to establish a better family /work balance following what has been a very demanding role as VFBV CEO over the past 12 years.  We wish Andrew well with these endeavours and will watch with interest as the next steps in his career evolve.

Andrew, I take this opportunity to thank you personally for your wisdom, leadership, integrity and courage.  Your knowledge and expertise on matters relating to CFA particularly and Victoria’s emergency management sector generally is second to none.  Your understanding and expertise on matters relating to CFA and other emergency management sector volunteers is an invaluable asset that we must somehow remain connected to.  You will be sorely missed as VFBV CEO and greatly appreciated in the role you will continue to play with VFBV and CFA into the future.

I take this opportunity to welcome Adam Barnett into the VFBV CEO role.  Adam is well known throughout both VFBV and CFA and is a highly experienced and well-regarded operator.  Adam has acted as VFBV CEO on numerous occasions and performed excellently during these periods.  Adam brings 13 years CFA experience to the role, joining VFBV in July 2007, and is well known to members through his role as VFBV Executive Officer since 2010.  Adam has worked on behalf of CFA volunteers for many years and his preparation to operate in the CEO role has been underway as part of VFBVs ongoing strategic planning for some time. 

Adam will hit the ground running with regard to the continued day-to-day leadership of VFBV, the strategic challenges presenting to us and the important ground work we must always do to support, engage with and advocate for CFA volunteers and the work volunteers do to protect Victorian communities.  

Having Adam take on ongoing management and leadership of VFBV and at the same time being able to retain the expertise of Andrew during what will be a very challenging and vulnerable time for CFA in the year ahead is the best possible way to transition to Andrew’s departure from the CEO role.  As VFBV President I am very proud that VFBV has established such a mature transition arrangement that provides continuity and stable leadership despite a period of significant vulnerability and upheaval in the emergency sector and CFA.

Further announcements will be made about an opportunity to recognise Andrew’s outstanding contribution to VFBV and to give him an appropriate farewell from his role as VFBV CEO.

Work will commence immediately to recruit a new VFBV Executive Officer to replace Adam. Rest assured that VFBV is well positioned to make this milestone transition. 

VFBV’s strength comes not just from our leadership positions but from you our members, and I take this opportunity to express my ongoing gratitude to all of you for the contribution you make to ensuring the voice of volunteers is respected and heard.  We remain steadfast in our commitment to represent volunteers on all matters that affect them so that on behalf of all Victorians we sustain strong volunteerism and the strongest possible CFA for the benefit of our communities.

A time to remember and reflect
By Andrew Ford, VFBV Chief Executive Officer 

At a personal level it doesn’t take hot February weather to remind me of the 2009 fires; the conditions leading up to them, that morning of the 7 Feb 2009, the days of firefighting, the recovery effort, nor the dreadful pain as we heard news of the loss of life, livelihood and property.

I remember telling my children on the morning of 7 Feb as I went up to the brigade ready for deployment to ‘sit quietly and take it in because I think today is probably going to be a terrible day in history’. I know exactly where I was when I said this and it still jolts me when I think about how awfully profound that conversation was.

Like many CFA members and affected community people I don’t need a 10 year milestone to remind me of the extent and impact of the tragic losses, the impact on individuals, families and communities nor the anxiety I have about the possibility of experiencing anything like that again and the worry I have about how we would go if it does happen.

The 2009 fires were a dreadful period in history, and I know they live in many of us every day. It is difficult to articulate a mix of feelings and a ‘knowing’ something we probably wish we didn’t know.

At the same time, it is a ‘knowing’ that is real and vitally important not to ignore, because what we now know and what we learned from that experience must inform how we plan and lead for the future.

It is important that we use this milestone to quietly stop and reflect on the tragedy and it is also important that we remember the enormous effort that prevented even further loss, the constructive things, lessons and incredible human spirit that emerged from that tragedy.

It’s hard to know what to say or do at this time and it is impossible to get it right for everyone. Each of us will deal with the memory and the ‘knowing’ in our own way and my biggest hope is that no one is doing this alone. This is a time for quiet reflection and a time to remember each single life impacted, each family impacted, each community impacted. The quantum of loss was devastating and the impact on communities is still profound.

My thoughts and prayers are with every person who suffered loss, every firefighter or emergency worker who did what they could to help and every person feeling pain any time and particularly now as the events of 2009 and Black Saturday will raise in profile as the 10-year commemorations take place.

And in addition to remembering the losses and the personal impacts we should proudly remember the incredible effort and resilience as people put lives and communities back together. However hard the memory is, we must use this time as a stark reminder that fires like this do happen and could happen again.

It is also a time to reflect on the incredible contribution of CFA volunteers and the CFA paid staff who work alongside them; the huge number of volunteers and paid staff from a whole range of agencies; and people across all parts of the community and business world who came together to combat the fires, deal with the impacts, recover and learn so that we could be better placed to deal with future emergencies.

A lot was learned both during and following these dreadful fires. Many of our lives did change forever after February 2009 and everyone put in an amazing effort to prevent what could well have been an even more catastrophic loss.

I hate to think that there are some people who won’t learn from our experience of the 2009 fires without having to go through something like it themselves and some people who were there but have forgotten the important things to take from the 2009 fires.

I hesitate to say it here, and I will not dwell on it at this time, but I get very frustrated when I think that there are decisions being made today and plans still being hatched together that will weaken Victoria’s ability to handle fires such as those we experienced in 2009. I hope you are listening decision- makers because you have been told in no uncertain terms what our concerns are and if you break CFA and its ability to deal with events like the Black Saturday fires in the future it will be on your head. My apologies readers but this must be said.

To anyone in a position of authority I ask, as you pay your respects and remember the suffering and incredible rebuilding that followed the Black Saturday fires, search into your conscience and ask how the actions and decisions you are taking today position Victoria to deal with a 2009 Black Saturday fire situation when or if it happens again in the future. It will be too late to ask yourself this in retrospect and wish you had done something different.

That is all I am going to say about the frustrations for this column because I want our thoughts and our care to be focused on those who are no longer with us, for those who lost loved ones and for the communities and people who have been impacted by the 2009 fires.

To everyone who remembers the fires referred to now as the Black Saturday fires and the other fires of the 2009 summer take care and lean on someone if you need to talk or need support.

A reminder that the Member Assistance Program is available through the support line, 24 hours a day on 1800 959 232. Trained and experienced Psychologists, Counsellors, Peers and Chaplains are available to all members and their immediate families through this free and confidential service.

Reminder: Cold Climate Jackets

Brigades and Groups are reminded that they have until 28 February 2019 to return Cold Climate Jacket Order Forms to VFBV.

VFBV has mailed copies of the order form to all Brigade/Group Secretaries during January and the order forms are also available for download on the VFBV website here. 

VFBV worked with CFA to obtain funding for the additional Cold Climate Jackets through the Volunteer Emergency Service Equipment Program and it is envisaged that this funding will provide up-to an additional 1900 jackets state wide.

As previously advised, VFBV will continue to advocate for additional funding to further increase the allocation of Cold Climate Jackets to brigades.

Delivery of the jackets is expected late June/early July to be ready for the winter season.

2020 State Champs

As previously advised, CFA and VFBV are working towards conducting the 2020 State Rural Championships (Juniors & Seniors) and the State Urban Senior Championship at the same venue on the same two day weekend.

The Rural and Urban Championships will retain their own individual events, and be conducted as separate competitions but conducted concurrently alongside each other on the traditional Rural and Urban competition tracks.

The chairs and members of both the VFBV State Rural & Urban Competition Committees have met on several occasions with CFA to discuss the proposal put forward by CFA, and both Committees have now agreed to a combined weekend as a means of increasing participation and a way forward to enhance and improve our State Championships.

Rob Waterson AFSM, chair of the Urban Competition & Rules Committee, says ‘we need to embrace this new concept and all work together to ensure our Championships remain viable and sustainable into the future’.

Gerry Neyenhuis, chair of the State Rural Competition Committee, agrees, and says ‘will be a major showcase for CFA, and display the skills, efficiency and teamwork of competitors, all attributes of today’s firefighters.’

CFA, VFBV and members of the Rural & Urban Committees met at the Mooroopna Recreation Reserve last month and agreed the grounds well able to conduct both State Championships side by side, and in consultation with the Greater Shepparton City Council, agreed to the weekend of 28th & 29th March 2020.

A District Committee has already been formed, including CFA management, members of both the Rural & Urban Committees, VFBV members and staff. The District Committee will work over the coming year in the planning, preparation and management of the 2020 combined event and liaise and work with the Greater Shepparton City Council, which is very supportive of the 2020 State Championships being held at Mooroopna.

Any feedback or views from Brigades or members, can be directed to the VFBV Rural and Urban State Competition Committees by contacting Jenni Laing at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Low Voltage Fuse Removal 

VFBV has received several inquiries from Brigades regarding the seemingly stalled rollout of Low Voltage Fuse Removal Courses across the state.

CFA has advised VFBV that the process hasn’t stalled but has slowed down over the Christmas/ New Year period, this is due to Federation University Trainers not being available over the Holiday season.

Due to Electrical Safety Victoria requirements, only endorsed personnel are able to conduct this training, in some instances CFA Instructors will be accompanied by an endorsed Electrical Safety trainer.

VFBV was happy to learn that LVFR training has already been delivered in six Districts across the state with a further seven courses booked in for the early this year. Electrical Safety Awareness Course is available online through the Training Hub and may be a pre-requisite for the course in your District depending on how you course delivery has been structured.

If Brigades are not sure when LVFR training is expected to reach their area VFBV suggest you contact your District Training Department for an update.

General Firefighter Project 

VFBV is happy to report that the General Firefighter project is progressing well with continued consultation between brigades, VFBV Delegates and CFA.

VFBV’s Delegates have been kept up to date with the course content and have been able to discuss concerns and ideas openly with the CFA project team. It is expected the Foundation Skills Drills will be released for pilot and volunteer feedback in late January/early February.

E-learning and Face-to Face content is still being developed with expected pilot release at the end of the Fire Season. General Firefighter updates can be accessed on Brigades online or LMS and are updated monthly.

If you have any questions, please contact your local CFA training team or VFBV working party via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

2,500 volunteers have their say

Who participated?

The seventh annual, VFBV Volunteer Welfare and Efficiency Survey was conducted during the months of September and October 2018, with more than 2,500 CFA volunteers taking part.

The survey was also offered to fire service volunteers in Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania and Western Australia taking the total participants to approximately 6,000 volunteers nationwide. 2018 was the third year that the survey was offered to fire service volunteers from across Australia, with survey results and trends now being used as a catalyst for dialogue at both state and national levels.

The Volunteer Welfare and Efficiency Survey is thought to be one of the biggest surveys of volunteer satisfaction in Australia. 

CFA Respondents

Analysis of the demographics of the respondents from the 2018 survey show that the respondents are representative of the wider CFA population. Some of the highlights include:

1. 82% male, 17% female (2% of respondents indicated either transgender, prefer not to say or other)
2. All age groups were represented, along with volunteers who have been with CFA for less than one year through to volunteers with more than 30 years of service with CFA
3. Volunteers from every CFA district took part
4. Brigade type:
   • 61% volunteers from rural brigades
   • 31% volunteers from urban brigades
   • 7% volunteers from integrated brigades
   • 1% volunteers from a CFA Coast Guard brigade

Understanding the results 

The survey uses a 1 to 10 scale (to represent people’s attitudes to a topic). This 1 to 10 scale is used to capture views about the Importance that a particular factor represents for the respondent, and then the respondent’s view of Performance for that particular factor. 10 being high importance/performance and 1 being low importance/performance.

Determining the Gap and VolWEL Outcome

The Gap between how closely performance meets the expectation of Importance, is referred to as the Volunteer Welfare and Efficiency Level (VolWEL) outcome.

The VolWEL outcome is a way to simply illustrate where things are working well or what needs attention.

A high VolWEL outcome is a sign that volunteer expectations are not being met while a low VolWEL outcome is a sign that volunteer expectations are closer to being met.

VolWEL Outcome

Key Observations from the 2018 Survey

Volunteer expectations are closest to being met in relation to:

Volunteer satisfaction is being negatively impacted on by:

Key results across the survey themes:

Volunteers are most satisfied, and their expectations are closest to being met, at their local brigade level. This includes that volunteers feel that diversity is welcomed and accepted within brigades, there are no barriers to the roles that women can occupy within brigades, and that the brigade environment is friendly, welcomes new members and creates good morale.

The biggest gap between volunteer expectations and performance of CFA is in relation to consultation with CFA volunteers at CFA corporate, regional and district levels. Additional feedback indicated that volunteer dissatisfaction with corporate level consultation includes consultation (or lack thereof) by government.

Volunteers also feel that CFA is not doing enough to provide training opportunities in formats, at times and at locations that makes it easy for volunteers to participate.

The survey also contains four questions relating to volunteer satisfaction which have shown either little of no improvement over the past three years.

The percentage of volunteers satisfied with their role as a CFA volunteer has not improved on the low levels reported over the last two years.

80% of volunteers who indicated they were leaders within their brigade are satisfied with their role, in comparison only 71% of respondents identifying either as a brigade member or a leader at a broader level indicated satisfaction with their volunteer role.

Of concern is only 56% of volunteers from integrated brigades indicated that they were satisfied with their role as a CFA volunteer. Satisfaction levels were highest amongst volunteers in rural brigades with 78% indicating they are satisfied with their volunteer role.

Satisfaction with the way volunteers are treated by CFA remains at a concerningly low level consistent with the decline first reported in 2016. This should be of significant concern to CFA and coupled with a decline in volunteers reported by CFA in 2018 it is possible that many dissatisfied volunteers have already resigned or withdrawn from CFA, meaning that this declining trend is likely understated in the reported results.

Higher than the overall average, 61% of females indicated that they were satisfied with how they were treated by CFA.

Volunteers from rural brigades are generally more satisfied with the way volunteers are treated by CFA (55%) than volunteers from urban and integrated brigades (43%). Of particular concern is the result that 39% of volunteers from urban and integrated brigades are actively dissatisfied with the way volunteers are treated by CFA.

There has been a slight improvement overall with the number of volunteers indicating they intend to continue their membership with CFA since the drop reported in 2016. This figure remains well below the 87% positive intention rate reported several years ago and coupled with the CFA reports of declining volunteer numbers is a trend that needs further analysis.

84% of members from rural brigades indicated that they intend to continue their membership of CFA, this intention is lower for volunteers from urban brigades at 78% and only 64% of volunteers from integrated brigades indicated that they intend to continue with CFA.

The overall result for recommending being a CFA volunteer to other people has increased slightly again in 2018 from 73% in 2017 to 74% in 2018.

Results from members from integrated brigades show that only 54% would recommend being a CFA volunteer to people they know. 79% of volunteers from rural brigades would recommend being a CFA volunteer to people they know, the results for urban volunteers is lower at 70% consistent with previous years.

Motivation for volunteering

Volunteers were given six choices to select what the single most important reason they are a CFA volunteer. The top two choices accounted for 94% of responses to this question. 60% of respondents indicated that their main reason for volunteering was to help protect the community I live in, while 34% selected a sense of fulfilment in supporting my community in a meaningful way.

Over the seven years of the survey there has been a shift away from volunteering for a sense of fulfilment in supporting my community in a meaningful way towards helping to protect the community that I live in. The change in reason for volunteering could be a lead indicator of a decreasing motivation of volunteers to contribute beyond their local area which could be a concerning trend for CFA’s surge capacity into the future.

Inviting Applicants for CFA Board

The CFA legislation recognises that it is important that the CFA Board has strong volunteer expertise, knowledge and an understanding of CFA volunteers. To support this, CFA legislation provides for four of the CFA Board's Members to be appointed from a panel of names submitted by Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria, two being representatives from brigades predominantly service urban communities and two being representatives from brigades predominantly serving rural communities. 

The terms of CFA Board Members Hazel Clothier, Lynda Hamilton, Peter Shaw and Tim Young expire 19th July 2019, triggering the need for VFBV to seek applications for a panel of names to be nominated for the next term commencing 20th July 2019. 

VFBV is seeking applications for volunteers interested in filling one of the four VFBV nominated positions on the CFA Board. 

CFA volunteers who believe they have the skills, experience and capacity to make a contribution to the Board of the CFA, are invited to apply for nomination to the CFA Board. In addition to volunteer experience and knowledge, selection will have regard to any of the following: knowledge of, or experience in, commercial, technical, operational, legal or financial matters; or expertise in fire or emergency management, land management or any other field relevant to the performance of the functions of the CFA. 

From applications received and following interviews, VFBV will submit a panel of names to the Minister for Police & Emergency Services. 

The CFA Board meets on a monthly basis and also operates a committee system which could require commitment of one half day per month. Attendance at official functions is also expected. 

CFA Board Members current annual remuneration is $58,598 (including Superannuation).

The CFA Board Charter is available from the VFBV office. For other relevant information, interested volunteers should contact VFBV - contact details below. 

Applications including a current resume must be emailed or faxed to VFBV by COB on Friday 24th May 2019 to: email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or fax: 03 9886 1618.