Fiskville Cup

By Irene Keating District 15/CFA Media

It was a day of emergency sirens blaring and a strong visual presence around the Ballan township recently, but there wasn’t an emergency.

It was the 50th anniversary of the Ballan Group of Fire Brigades annual preseason preparedness event – the Fiskville Cup, held on Saturday 14 October.

The friendly round robin competition began back in 1974, and is all about getting CFA members from the nine brigades in the Ballan Group trained and prepared for the summer season.

CFA Chief Officer Jason Heffernan said the variety of drills and skills needed to complete the tasks relates directly to what brigade members would experience on the fireground.

“This includes hot fire training, extinguishing bin fires, house fires, a fire that burns over a truck or vehicle and filling up tankers and pumping water.”

CFA Chief Officer Jason Heffernan, Group General Manager of Strategic Services Robyn Harris from CFA HQ, joined West Region Deputy Chief Officer (DCO) Brett Boatman, Assistant Chief Fire Officer Regional Commander – Grampians EM Region Stephen Walls, ACFO Lachlan Redman and Commander Gavin Hope to form up a Ballan Tanker 2 Team competing against the eight remaining volunteer fire brigade teams.

Ballan Group Training Coordinator Billy Smith has been coordinating the Fiskville Cup for the past 12 years, and said the reason he continues to be involved is because it’s great to help the community out and help members by training them up to the best of their ability.

“We don’t give out scores we just give out placings. The brigades that finish down the lower end the year before is usually at the top the next year,” he said.

Two brigades from neighbouring Pentland Group, also participated in the anniversary event that saw them compete in drills which were reflective of the risks pertinent to the area.

“Teams were evaluated at each drill on their approach to, and execution of the task, and scored for ranking to determine which team would be the overall winners of the coveted Fiskville Cup,” a spokesperson said.

Crews lined up under heavy dark threatening clouds to participate in the event which was this year held at the Central Highlands Victorian Emergency Management Training Centre (VEMTEC) in Ballan and three sites around the Ballan area.

The incidents that teams responded to this year included a Burn over/Hazardous Trees, a Virtual Reality scenario, rubbish fire on a day of Total Fire Ban, grass fire impacting a truck, rescue and first aid event, leaking drums in a factory, big fill set up etc taking place. Each year, the hosting of the event is shared between the nine brigades in the Group, which also helps to highlight the vast range of different risks they have across their Group.

At the end of the day, when scores were tallied, it was noted that the Ballan Tanker 2 Team performed very well however, Ballan Tanker 1 just snuck home with the Fiskville Cup by a narrow margin.

The award for Best Crew Leader, the Robert Molesworth Award, was presented to Ballan Fire Brigade member Rex Jose.

The teams were made up of the Blackwood, Greendale, Ballan, Mt Wallace, Morrisons, Gordon, Mt Egerton, Millbrook and Wallace Fire Brigades.