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 collected a range of 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, old CFS Headquarters microfiche, from conversations with former and current brigade members, and physical history collections from individuals.

We add information to this website as we have the opportunity to collate the history, accessed via 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, taken 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 and 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 Promotions Unit mobile semi trailer display, CFS Field Days and competitions, organised burn offs and more.

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, with the Promotions Unit receiving a grant to buy an Olympus, 2.1 Megapixel digital camera for $2800 in 2001, 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.

The availability of phone cameras has further increased the ability of CFS members across the state to take photos of CFS incidents and activities, and send them to us.

The CFS Promotions Unit has been the recipient of some extensive private photo collections, with images from the 1970's, 1980's and early 1990's - many of which have been shared on this website, particularly through our appliance history section.

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.

We will continue to share photos through our website and our History facebook page.

Photos from the CFS Promotions Unit Collection