Wyee Rural Fire Brigade has paid tribute to two of its longest serving members – Russ and Gwen Deaves – who are celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary and almost as long as local volunteer firefighters.
Russ is a founding member of the Wyee brigade, joining in 1960, a year after they were married and Gwen came onboard as one of the crew’s first female firefighters soon after.
They have been with the Rural Fire Service (originally called the Volunteer Bush Fire Brigade) for more than 60 years and between them they have 100-plus years of community service to Wyee and surrounding areas in a variety of fields.
Not ones to shy away from a long-term commitment, the couple remains an important part of the brigade to this day.
“I started off fighting bushfires with my Dad when I was about 12 years old,” Russ said.
“We had no fire brigade here and the local blokes used to just go out with wet bags or tree branches and control what fires were about.
“Sometimes we’d get the railway fettlers to go out there with us.
“But that’s where I got my first idea of when you put a fire out to only just do it once.
“And then in 1960 the council gave us an opportunity to form a brigade here, so we did.
“I became Captain of this brigade in about 1962, or something like that, and I was Captain for 15 years.”
Russ also held positions of Deputy Group Captain, Group Captain and was Senior Group Captain for many years.
“I was away from home at fires a lot; at least Gwen understood what was going on and why I was away,” he said.
Gwen became involved in the fire brigade in 1967.
“Once we got involved, the women, it just carried on from there,” she said.
“We were the first ever female firefighting brigade in Australia, we believe.
“It started off with one of the women asking the men what we should do if there was a fire started.
“One smarty said: go and put it out.
“So, one day we got out the old truck, an AO160, very heavy to drive, double shuffling and everything like that, and eight of us decided that we would go out and put out the fire.
“It took two of us to start the pump because it was a pull pump, you know.
“And once they (the men) found out that we weren’t just playing games, they gave us a few pointers.”
Russ said “it was great to see them go out to a fire and put the thing out”.
“And no doubt about it, I’d back them against any brigade to put a fire out, and it’ll just stay out,” he said.