SA Country Fire Service Promotions Unit - History Section
Promoting the Historical foundations of the Service

Minnipa Brigade - 1951 to Present

Minutes for the first six years of the existence of Minnipa EFS cannot be found, but it was recorded in November, 1957 that Minnipa EFS had been in existence back to 1951 - and it may well have been earlier. Unfortunately there exists only verbal confirmation of what took place.

Meetings were held monthly until the mid sixties when they gradually declined until the early seventies and from then became more frequent. Rolly Karger took the lead role in looking after the old Blitz truck and the limited equipment.

At the sight of smoke and with limited communications, a crew would turn up. With farming becoming mechanised, some machinery had a tendency to start a fire if maintenance was not up to date. Farmers also wanted to have their crops reapt quickly, so it was decided to call a public meeting to discuss fire danger issues in November, 1957. There were 31 in attendance with five apologies. Murray Gerschwitz was elected president, taking over from Rolly Karger, who at one period held the position of Eyre Peninsula Fire Fighting Association president.

The Brigade set about raising money to purchase equipment and improve safety. This was achieved by holding Annual Balls that were very successful - with the attendance of 310 people on one occasion. Bridge and Euchre card evenings were held weekly for a period of six weeks during March and April and were also financially good for the Brigade.

At this time, Minnipa Hill was owned by the Railways who were generous enough to allow the Brigade to crop the land to raise funds.

Two eight-foot farm gates were purchased for the sides of the Blitz for the improved safety of the firemen. In 1958, a base radio was purchased for the cost of 102 pounds. In reading minutes after this time, radio communications were a headache with difficulty in transmission and reception and also trouble training personnel to operate the radio. The base station was situated at the fire shed located next to the hall and required someone to be there to operate the radio. It was suggested by Tony Heddle to relocate the radio to Minnipa Research Centre and the trial period proved so successful that the radio has remained there to this day. The first siren had to be activated from the shed.

This information has been sourced from the West Coast Sentinel Newspaper, 15th Nov 2001

Brigade Stations

1951 to Present - 11 James Street, Minnipa
Photographer, CFS Promotions Unit - Mar 2012
Google Map reference - Longitude 135.156433 Latitude -32.853183

Captains

Life Members