Saturday morning at the Tatong farmers’ market

Alan Hawes (left) and Peter Zoethout at the Tatong farmers’ market

by Leith Hillard, CFA Public Affairs

Country quiet, clear skies and mild temperatures; the wafting smell of fresh coffee and pancakes; stalls laden with seedlings, relishes (like caramelised onion and fig), jams (like blood plum) and local wines and olives. The perfect setting for CFA to set up a raffle, sell some stubby holders touting “Tatong Fire Brigade: The Flame Tamers”, and chat with the locals.

Alan Hawes, Secretary of Tatong brigade and Staging Area Manager, was up early to catch the passing trade at the monthly Tatong farmers’ market and tell some local stories. Originally from Liverpool in the UK via Sydney, Alan moved with his family to Tatong so they could immerse themselves in Ned Kelly country. He already had a secondary career making Ned Kelly plaster sculptures and painting pictures of the man and his gang.

“I joined the brigade about 10 years ago and my daughter and grandson are both in CFA,” Alan said.

“Last year the big fires started about 3km out of town with a lightning strike. I’d just flown home from Orbost where I was in a strike team, walked in the house at 1pm and then the pagers went off. It didn’t stop for 2 months.

“We've used the region spare slip-on this season and it's been ideal so we’re fundraising to buy our own. We’ve had a bit of luck though. With all the media attention around the fires last year, we were contacted by the Caulfield RSL who chose us as the brigade to donate to. They held a charity auction and even passed their right to collect funds at Caulfield racecourse on to us. Twelve of our members collected on Caulfield Cup day and raised a fair amount of money.

“We’re doing well with our membership too. We’ve got 61 members including 14 women and we have had a good number of young people join in the past year or so. We keep the training active to keep them interested.”

Peter Zoethout of Molyullah Fire Brigade joins the conversation on his way to buy stoneground bread. His township was the staging area site for the fires and, he insists, the place of origin. “People only say the fires started in Tatong because they don’t know how to pronounce Molyullah,” he jokes. “They say lightning doesn’t strike twice but it did – on one of our member’s properties too. It was in pretty rugged country and it took strike teams a long time to find the fire origin the first time around.”

While both brigades are in the Benalla Group and only about 25 kms apart, Molyullah has not had the recruitment success enjoyed by Tatong. “That’s just the way it goes,” Peter says. “But we have about 36 qualified Minimum Skillers in the older age group so we still crew our truck and slip-on whenever we’re needed. My wife calls us the Grandpa Brigade.”