Appliance Callsigns

Appliance callsigns are used during communications to determine an individual appliance from many at an incident. Over the years, these callsigns have evolved to become simple designations.

In the days before the Emergency Fire Service and Fire Fighting organisations, the appliances usually just had the brigade name for a callsign.

Before 1984, the appliances were referred to using the Group radio callsign, followed by a unit number, so for example, The Basket Range brigade's smaller appliance was VL5GG (East Torrens Group) Unit 9, whilst the Jervois brigade's small appliance was VL5EW (Group) Unit 6.

After 1984, the callsigns were changed to allow for different appliance types to be recognised, so that the Brigade name followed by a code was used. This code denoted the specialist equipment carried by the first digit, and the second number as a reference digit. For example, Kingston brigade had a 48 and a 47 appliance.

From 1st November 1990, the callsigns changed to the currently used system of the Brigade name followed by a code relating to its water tank size and drive capabilities.

Further information on the current system can be found on our appliance pages here: Emergency Vehicles

This information has been sourced from the CFS Promotions Unit