By Jenel Hunt
In 2016, three firies donned their blue uniforms to have their photo taken for the local paper. They’d each been awarded a Diligent and Ethical Services Medal by the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services for their volunteer firefighting efforts on the Granite Belt.
Eight years later, they have come together to get a photo for an even more respected milestone – this time they are celebrating the fact that they can all put the letters OAM after their names.
James Massey, Roni Bau and Bill Humble received their Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in different years, but all were cited for their work in the rural fire brigade and with Bill’s medal being awarded this year, the friends are chuffed about being OAMs together.
All three describe the most important part of their firey work in a similar way.
“It’s teamwork,“ said Roni.
“It’s looking after each other,“ said James.
“It’s mateship,“ said Bill.
But while the mateship of all the people united at the fiery front line has been important to them, there has always been a special bond for this particular trio, which is why they are so thrilled that they are all recipients of the same cherished award.
For Bill, putting on his old uniform was a walk down memory lane … as he retired from his volunteer firefighting duties ’quite a few years ago’.
At 87, he still has vivid memories of the fires in which he has been involved, large and small, including his first fire at Amiens in the 1960s – a long time before fighting fires was part of an organised service.
“We didn’t have a Rural Fire Service. We’d just meet at a farmer’s place and take brooms, shovels and bags. We didn’t have much to fight with, but we never lost a fire,“ he said.
Bill was named Stanthorpe Citizen of the Year back in 2012, was the town crier for many years, has done stints in the chamber of commerce and as chief steward of the Australian Small Winemakers Show and said he has loved his involvement as a firey (even though his most beloved role has probably been as Santa to generations of children at Stanthorpe’s annual carols by candlelight).
“I’ve been involved in all sorts of things in my life, and I reckon the Rurals are as good as anything,“ he said.
James, 73, joined the Liston volunteer firefighters in 1973 when he arrived in the district (he and Bill met in the same year), then was a foundation member of the Sugarloaf brigade in 1994. He is still there as first officer. His OAM was awarded in 2020 for his dedication to the Rural Fire Service and long-standing membership in the Stanthorpe Agricultural Society and other community groups.
James met Roni in 1974 while fighting a fire at the end of Border Road on the Granite Belt. So they’ve all known each other a long time, and as Bill says, “We haven’t fallen out yet.“
Now 69, Roni was just 16 when he went to his first fire. Since then he has been the group officer of the Stanthorpe group and for four years James was his deputy group officer. They remember a time before the Stanthorpe group was founded and every brigade ’just turned out’ to fires, well before the ordered and organised callouts of latter years.
Roni can trace his volunteering back to 16th November 1970 when he joined the Applethorpe Caves group, which was founded in 1948 but was not officially recognised until 1958.
He remembers farmers arriving with their spray carts, which were often still half fun of whatever chemical they’d been spraying last.
These days Roni is the warden and first officer for the Applethorpe service. He received his OAM in 2021.
For 10 years Roni ran a high school Certificate II program in firefighting training. By the second or third year, James and Bill were also involved.
For Roni it has been a mark of pride that a number of his students, including those who have moved away, have gone on to become firefighters and valued members of their communities.
“We had 16 students for 18 weeks, one day a week, and did that for 10 years. They got hands-on training and it helped give them skills and a sense of what they could accomplish,“ he said.
Seeing three old mates at Weeroona Park where they’d previously had their photos taken together for the paper wasn’t so much an interview as a chance to eavesdrop on a meandering conversation that touched on many subjects then skittered to the next without pause. It was a freezing day and the men whipped off their coats for the photo then huddled back into them to shoot the breeze.
Although ostensibly celebrating the medals pinned to their uniforms, Bill, James and Roni also spent time remembering mates and they touched on an honour board of local names of those who had been involved in their lives over the past 50 or so years.
Things have changed since they started out on their volunteering journey, and they admit it may not always be for the best. They’re not impressed to see people taking selfies at fires. Sometimes they feel that the old heads aren’t quite as respected for their knowledge as they could be. But all in all, they value the work they have done towards keeping people and property safe, and the special mateship that has survived the crucible of many bushfires.
