LITTLE RIVER, BIG HEART

LITTLE River CFA brigade is a station built on mateship.

An eclectic mix including a farmer and shift workers, the 15-strong volunteers are a force to be reckoned with.

New CFA data shows it’s the only volunteer brigade in the Greater Geelong region to meet response time targets more than 90 per cent of the time.

Terry Hedt has been captain at the rural shed for 42 of his 52 years as a CFA volunteer and said they were proud of the latest results.

“There are not a lot of us but we’re a close-knit team and really good mates,” he said.

“We had a fire just a couple of weeks ago at a lady’s property and she got one hell of a fright.

“She was panicking and sweating, but we put it out really quickly and a few hours later she turns up at the station with a slab of beer. It’s all about community here.”

A township that often bears the brunt of summer arson attacks and out-ofcontrol burn-offs, the Little River brigade members are a resilient bunch.

But gone are the days of large farmer-based stations, Mr Hedt said.

Now it’s dwindled numbers who refuse to quit.

“We’ve got our 80th birthday coming up next month and one of our former secretaries was just given a medal for 60 years of service, Ian Fairchild,” Mr Hedt said.

“We’ve seen a lot of fires over my time here, the Lara bushfires in 1969 and all that, but it’s definitely changed now. We’re not the group of farmers like we used to be.”