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Events 2022

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 18 January 2023

Recent Activities

31^st December, 2022

That’s it for 2022. Support Brigade volunteers have been busy throughout the year, not just in the fire season. Below is a list of some of the tasks carried out since the last update.

• Continuation of the District Brigade Logistical Support Process.
• Reciprocal visit by HK Support volunteers to Southern Highlands Support Brigade
• Support station and equipment maintenance, monthly vehicle checks
• Brigade involvement in two search and rescue operations.
• Supply Hose Kits for planned HRs
• CABA cylinder refill, pickup and delivery
• Pick up and/or deliver volunteers to Sydney Domestic Terminal
• Manning of Galston and Berowra fire towers
• Meal pickup and delivery for volunteers on training courses
• Supply of water to the SES
• And Changeover management of Group Captain’s allocated vehicles and other vehicle pickup and delivery as requestioned.

 Looking back to earlier in the year, below is a picture of the devistation at Wisman's Ferry from the flood.

 

That’s it for 2022. Here’s wishing everyone a happy, peaceful Christmas and a quiet, bush fire free 2023.

8^th August 2022

While Covid-19 has still impacted the Support Brigade, the brigade has still been quite busy. As always, the health and well-being of our volunteers is the brigade’s number one responsibility. However, by following Covid-19 protection protocols and with the increased vaccination rate of our volunteers, below are some of the tasks the brigade has been involved with recently:

• Commencement of a new District Brigade Logistical Support Process. This is the delivery of material and equipment to various brigades on a weekly basis
• Provision of staging area management and food deliveries for the Wisemans Ferry flood clean-up and for the NEM medal presentation for those that missed out on the earlier presentations from Support and other brigades
• NAVEX exercise, Saturday, 25^th June 2022. The brigade provided the following:
  • Catering transport on behalf of the Catering Brigade
  • Staging area management in the Cowan Truck Stop
  • Resource distribution to various locations within the Mt Kuring-gai / Cowan area
  • Assistance with the metal car ‘mock-up’ at Cowan airbase.
• Familiarisation training of the new Support 12 Bravo bus
• Support station and equipment maintenance, monthly vehicle checks
• Search and rescue
• CABA cylinder refill, pickup and delivery
• Pick up and deliver volunteers to Sydney Domestic Terminal
• Manning of fire towers
• Meal pickup and delivery for volunteers on training courses
• Changeover management of Group Captain’s allocated vehicles and other vehicle pickup and delivery as required, out-of-area vehicle movements including motorhomes
• Fire Danger sign cover placement and removal
• Provision of brigade volunteers to assist the SES with the operation of BFIL.

 District Exercise 2022 was cancelled for this year.

Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Support Brigade Annual General Meeting

The brigade’s annual general meeting was held on Tuesday 14th June, 2022. The following field officers and office bearers were either elected or appointed:

Field Officers			Administration
Captain	Ben de Leon		President	Rex Callaghan
Senior Deputy	Geoff Percival		Secretary	Alan Barnwell
Deputy 2	Rex Callaghan		Treasurer	Stephanie de Leon
Deputy 3	Glenn Kershaw		Training	Rex Callaghan
Deputy 4	Stephanie de Leon		First Aid Officer	Sue Williams
Deputy 5	David Scott		RFSA Delegate	Paul Brady
Deputy 6	John Goldsmith		Appointed Positions
Deputy 7	Alan Barnwell		Berowra Tower Co-ordinator	Peter Brogan
Deputy 8	David Dale		Galston Tower Co-ordinator	Paul Browning
Deputy 9	John Nelson		Callout Officer	Bronwen Bowden
Deputy 10	Paul Brady		Community Engagement	John A’Beckett
			Fund Raising	John Dennis
			Social Convenor	Paul Brady
			Assistant Training	Phil Gallop
			Assistant Equip - Vehicles	David Scott
			Assistant Equip - PPE	John Snook
			Station Officer	John Goldsmith

During counting, the District Manager made the following comments & invited questions from members:

• Central Dispatch is due in Hornsby Kur-ring-gai on 29 September 2022. There will be training in it beforehand
• Status Panels in vehicles will then become active
• 000 calls will go straight to RFS HQ before dispatching Brigades
• RFS funding has been increased & will allow for permanency of the mitigation crews
• FCC appreciated Support’s hours put into some tasks and acknowledged that there was no standard training for some of our tasks.

Awarding of National Emergency Medal and a Commissioner’s Certificate of Service

On Thursday 28th April 2022 many of our members were awarded the National Emergency Medal and a Commissioner’s Certificate of Service for their service during the 2019/20 fire season.