Malcolm’s long CFA service lauded

MORE than seven decades since he signed up to volunteer with the Country Fire Authority, 88-year-old Malcolm Cameron is still helping out.

Mr Cameron was 16 when he first turned up to the Connewarre Fire Brigade, and in 2020, he marked his 70th year of volunteering with the CFA, including 14 years as brigade captain.

All of Mr Cameron’s service was based at the Connewarre Fire Brigade until December last year, when he transferred to Freshwater Creek.

Throughout that time, he has served on the Sunday morning roster, checking equipment, doing the checks with other CFA brigades and driving the tankers the required 30 kilometres.

Mr Cameron said his volunteering days are not over.

“Whatever time my life has still got left, I will be able to enjoy my time at Freshwater Creek and enjoy the CFA family for as long as I can.

“I’ll stay active as long as I can – that’s the intent.”

Mr Cameron was captain of the Connewarre Brigade during the February 1983 Ash Wednesday bush fires, in which 14 CFA firefighters died.

“Two members of the crew were dispatched to Melton early in the morning – Melton was under threat from the fire that was in Gisborne. We worked all day all night – and we didn’t know what was happening in the Otways,” he said.

He also remembers the devastating 1977 fire between Ballarat, Streatham and Cressy, and more recently the 2009 Black Saturday fires.

“You take the good days with the bad – and there are more good days,” he said.

Mr Cameron was officially awarded his medal on August 24, 2020, during the height of the pandemic, and Member for Western Victoria Bev McArthur visited the Freshwater Creek Brigade on Friday last week to personally congratulate him.

Ms McArthur said the easing of COVID-19 restrictions mean last week was the first opportunity to publicly celebrate Mr Cameron’s efforts, and that his story was one of extraordinary devotion.

“For 72 years, Malcolm Cameron has been a giver. He has risked his life, saved property, saved others’ lives.

“There could barely be another example of such commitment to one’s community.

“Today we say thank you to a humble man, a generational contributor to what is Australia’s greatest volunteer organisation.”