Brigade History

The History of CFS Brigades in South Australia

This information may include:-

CFS Promotions Unit Brigade History Collection

The CFS Promotions Unit has been able to collect information about many brigades in the State, as to when they were formed, who started it and who has had a part of the brigade. It includes buildings used by the brigade as well as appliances and equipment.

Much of this information has been collected from history books, publications and newspaper clippings, and from conversations with brigade members when the Unit has been travelling around the State

If we have been able to obtain nformation on brigades, it will be available on the Old Brigade History link in the menu on the left.

CFS Promotions Unit Photographic History Collection

The CFS Promotions Unit holds a selection of photographic slides, which appear to be taken from the early 1960's to around the early 1970's by an unknown photographer, showing new EFS appliances at delivery, station openings, appliance commissionings, FCO School and what appears to be EFS Competitions.

Around 1995, the CFS Promotions Unit loosely formalised a plan to take photos of CFS appliances, stations, with the plan at that time to gain photos for addition to the CFS Promotions Unit website.

This plan soon developed into taking photos at various CFS activities, Promotional events attended by the Pantech, the CFS mobile semi trailer display, CFS Field Days and competitions, organised burn offs and more, with photos predominately taken by amateur photographer Greg Liddle.

Quite by accident, the photographers ended up attending some CFS incidents (usually because they were taking photos of another event, and the brigade had a call out around the same time), and from then, the photographic side of the Promotions Unit website expanded.

The expansion was particularly helped along the way by the arrival of digital cameras, and the Promotions Unit receiving a grant to buy an Olympus, 2.1 Megapixel digital camera for $2800, which enabled the website administrators to have a digital camera with them at all times to enable more photographs to be taken.

Since that time, the photographic side of the Promotions Unit has grown exponentially, with the purchase of bigger and better cameras, the growing demand for incident and activity photos and the availability of a suitably funded vehicle for use by the Promotions Unit.

As of June 2010, the CFS Promotions Unit photographic collection is well over 200,000 images, with a many of those on film.

Each photograph taken has captured a moment in time - a moment that will not be repeated. So while a photo may be recent , it now has its own little place in history.

While some of the collection dates back around 14 or so years, the memories of those captured in the photo may still be clear, memories will start to fade, and it is quite possible that the names of those featured in the photo will, potentially, over time, be forgotten.

To that end, the Promotions Unit is working on digitising those images on film, and collating specific information on every image taken, including where and when it was taken, who took the photograph, and exactly who features in the photo. The same information will be collated on every digital image held in the collection.

As work progresses on the images, the Promotions Unit will be seeking assistance of past and current CFS members, and others, to identify the content of the images.

Photos from the CFS Promotions Unit Collection