Dunmore RFS Brigade captain Greg Hardy, who’s been a volunteer for more than 30 years. Photo: Jen White.
Greg Hardy has firefighting in his blood.
The Dunmore Rural Fire Service (RFS) Brigade captain is the third generation of his family to volunteer with the unit, joining at just 16 years of age.
“It’s a massive family tradition,” he said.
“I grew up here in Dunmore. My dad Tony was the captain, mum (Dale) was a captain of communications, my brother Brian is still a member here. Even my Uncle Ian who’s here now was a captain in between my brother and my dad. So yeah, it’s family.”
Tony, who has now passed away, played a pivotal role in getting a long-awaited new station to replace the outdated, 60-year-old building on Dunmore Road.
Greg was on hand on Thursday (9 April) with his fellow volunteers to welcome NSW Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib to look over plans for a new purpose-built station, to be built on land donated by Shellharbour City Council on Buckleys Road.
“After a long, hard slog, we’re at the stage now of getting a bit of dirt turned for a new station,” Greg said.
“It’s wonderful because where we are at the moment with membership and the room we’ve got here, the facilities, it’s just not up to standard for our membership, especially for the females.
“It’s a long time coming but it will be very rewarding when they start.”
Greg said as the demographic of the Shellharbour area had changed, so too had the work carried out by the RFS.
“There’s a lot more people around here now. The bushfires, grass fires – that’s nearly all we did 20 years ago,” he said.
“Now we’re going 24/7, whether it’s summer or not, we’re doing storm damage, floods, fires, everything.
“It’s expanded so much that our service provides other services with the help that they need.”
Greg said the other big change he had seen over the years was in membership. He hopes the new building will encourage people of all abilities to volunteer with the RFS.
“Ten or 15 years ago we had a good base of membership; we knew we could be out there all the time,” he said.
“Now we just need members. We’ve got about 45 members on the books, a mix of male and female. We’ve had up to 50 but we’re losing them, which is not a good thing.”
RFS Deputy Commissioner Peter McKechnie told Mr Dib that siteworks on the new station should be completed by the end of the financial year and he hoped the building would be completed by the end of 2027.
The new four-bay fire station will have dedicated training and meeting areas, storage, bathrooms and changerooms, creating a safer and more functional base for brigade members, Mr Dib said.
The minister paid tribute to all the volunteers, saying they were “pretty special” people. He promised them a barbecue to celebrate when the new station is completed.
“You do what I can’t do and what I couldn’t do, so there’s incredible admiration and respect for what you do,” he said.
“We’ve recognised very much that the conditions you work in aren’t conditions that we should be asking [of you].
“I want to thank you for putting up with what you’ve had to put up with over the years and even doing things your own way, like raising the roof.”
Mr Dib also paid tribute to Shellharbour MP Anna Watson for her advocacy – “her insistence” – on behalf of the brigade for a new station.
“This is something I’ve been campaigning for for over 15 years now,” Ms Watson said.
“Our volunteers absolutely deserve this; they give of their time freely to look after us and the least thing we can do is give them a nice home to work in.”
As for the next generation of Hardy family members joining, Greg is hopeful that his son or daughter might put up their hand.
“Maybe one day they might. I hope they do. But if they don’t, that’s fine,” he said.
