General News
18 November, 2025
Open day brings strong result
Finding volunteers isn’t a challenge unique to local fire brigades, but it’s one that threatened Mt Cameron with a slow death, until a new approach changed their fortunes.
Mt Cameron Fire Brigade’s community open day earlier this month was a success story despite single digit crowds — a sign of the times for small brigades.
It’s because all four people that attended wanted to volunteer, plus one who couldn’t make it, doubling the brigade’s active members if they all follow through.
To get here volunteers delivered flyers to 180 homes in a 10 km radius of the station.
CFA Goldfields Group Officer Peter Higgins said getting volunteers wasn’t always this difficult.
In fact, he said the organisation’s current generation are the first that need to focus on recruiting to be sustainable. Without it?
“Simple answer. They slowly die,” he said.
It’s in stark contrast to how Mr Higgins said it used to be.
“For years and years they’d just rock up. You’d always have a common flow but that doesn’t happen now,” he said.
Between young people moving away and a shrinking farming community who can volunteer ,Mr Higgins said regional brigades across the state are struggling.
It was an existential threat that faced Mt Cameron in years to come if there wasn’t a change.
However, a group of local volunteers came together and decided to make that change. Instead of focusing on the nearby farming community who know them they reached out to those who hadn’t.
It was people who moved to the area looking for a tree-change, those living a homesteader lifestyle, people looking to connect with their community — that’s who they contacted.
“It might have saved Mt Cameron just by thinking outside the box,” Mr Higgins said.
The brigade’s Captain Parker Fawcett said they were “desperate” for volunteers.
Their unit is an ageing one with around five active volunteers in their 30s while the rest are over 60 years old.
“My concern is we don’t have enough manpower,” he said.
That may change with their new approach to recruiting, one Mr Higgins is keen to see used elsewhere.
“It’s up to us, as older volunteers, we need that new blood coming through,” he said.
“We have to make it attractive for new members.”