Volunteers tour Bushfire Centre of Excellence for WAFES 2022

On 9 September 2022 more than 50 volunteers toured the DFES Bushfire Centre of Excellence (BCoE) as part of the WA Fire and Emergency Services (WAFES) Conference.

The group included Marine Rescue, State Emergency Service, Fire and Emergency Services, Fire and Rescue Services and Bush Fire Service volunteers from across the State.

Chief Superintendent BCoE John Tillman AFSM said it was great to take part in the WAFES Conference for a second consecutive year. 

“The BCoE facility tour is an invaluable opportunity to welcome volunteers to the space, showcase what we’re working on and gather ideas and feedback from them to inform our priorities,” Chief Superintendent Tillman said.

“I hope all attendees enjoyed the day and encourage their fellow volunteers to make a trip to the centre.”

The tour commenced with a Welcome to Country and traditional dance delivered by Bindjareb Traditional Owner Theo Kearing.

This was followed by a morning tea and a tour of the facility by the centre’s Cultural Fire Program Coordinator David Windsor. David highlighted the facility’s cultural elements, including the Water Blessing feature at the entrance and the newly unveiled artwork in the gardens.

The artwork is titled Mungah and was developed by local Traditional Owner Karrie-Anne Kearing and her mother – Bindjareb Elder Aunty Gloria Kearing. Watch our short video to learn more.

The group was then broken up to attend three training sessions led by different BCoE teams.

The Rural Fire Pocketbook App was previewed for the first time to the volunteers. The app is designed to be a one-stop-shop for firefighters to access information about equipment, safety and welfare, communications, technical and procedural matters and more.

Volunteers were invited to test the clickable prototype on their devices and provide feedback and suggestions to improve the product.  

Running at the same time were sessions from the BCoE Training team and Cultural Fire Program. The groups then swapped to ensure everyone attended all sessions.

The focus of the training session was to identify any changes volunteers wanted to see in DFES training courses. Volunteers provided great feedback to the team which will inform future training strategies and priorities.

In the Cultural Fire session, volunteers were provided with an insight into the support being provided to First Nations Australians to increase opportunities to conduct cultural burning.    

Just before lunch, the Australian Fire Danger Rating System project team provided an overview of the new national system to reflect fire danger conditions and the educational resources available.

This was followed by a traditional lunch provided by the Bindjareb Community consisting of damper, wattle seed squid and kangaroo skewers.

Feedback on the facility tour was extremely positive, with volunteers praising the Welcome to Country and information provided in key sessions.