Drought Busting in Region 23

As a CFA Operations Manager, Stewart Kreltszheim is well travelled in Region 23 and well aware of the pressures that ongoing drought and last year’s fires have placed on families and individuals. When the council in Wangaratta made funding available for its community health building initiative Drought Busters, Stewart was keen to get CFA involved.

The Drought Busters initiative provides free social evenings where locals enjoy each other’s company, a meal and a talk by a prominent speaker. Previous speakers have included Kevin Sheedy and Steve Monighetti and this time around the guest was ex-VFL footballer and AFL coach Stan Alves.

Stan played for Melbourne and North Melbourne between 1965 and 1979 and coached St Kilda between 1994 and 1998, taking them to a Grand Final in 1997. He has been awarded an Order of Australia and is a successful businessman with a particular interest in mental health issues and building resilience in difficult times.

“Healthy fire brigades need healthy communities,” Stewart says. “I’d heard about the community support programs going on through CFA in the northwest and wanted to enhance that idea. I spoke to CFA Human Resources and some funding was made available. A number of agencies in the area banded together including the council, North East Health, Department of Primary Industries and Anglicare - they donated money, services and time. Three critical areas were identified that needed some support: Rutherglen/Springhurst, Wilby and Nathalia.”

“We took advantage of the CFA paging system and the brigade network but, ultimately, Drought Busters nights are community events, not CFA events. Everyone can be affected by tough times whether they are in brigades or not.

“We had three evenings and they were an outstanding success with more than 100 people at each one. Having a good speaker is the key and Stan spent the whole time mingling and gave a great talk."

Everyone who attended took home a showbag of leaflets about health services available in their area as well as pamper products like meditation tapes and moisturisers.

"People enjoyed the conversations, had a meal, got a massage and a haircut and went home with things looking a bit brighter," Stewart says. "There was no alcohol available, just a good night out."

“It was personally very rewarding to be involved and we’re certainly open to arranging more of them in the future. We could develop the program to suit the demand or the need.

“The CFA charter says that we’re out there to save lives and it doesn’t say anywhere that the only way to do that is by putting water on fire.”