Community
20 May, 2026
Support for CFA
IT’S National Volunteer Week and the Cobden Country Fire Authority (CFA) brigade are celebrating the hard work of their volunteering team who show up for crucial moments both during and outside of the fire season.
The CFA doesn’t just put out fires – they turn out for road accidents and other emergencies to assist other volunteer organisations with their duties.
Father-son duo Greg and Stephen McQuinn have been volunteering with the Cobden CFA brigade for nearly a combined 55 years, juggling their work at T S McQuinn and Son and family life with their volunteering efforts.
“I’ve been a member of the CFA getting close to 30 years and when I joined, at the time, the CFA were a bit short of members and unless you’re in the brigade you can’t help,” Greg said.
“Rather than being a spectator, I decided to join up to help the brigade and help the community.
“It’s a pretty worthwhile thing to do – there’s a lot of people, when you pull up in that big red truck, that are pretty happy to see you.
“If you can do something good while you’re there it gives you a good feeling.”
Greg said working with his fellow volunteers in the brigade was rewarding as they were a great bunch of people who had a bit of fun between the serious happenings of the work.
“I want to tell the guys I work with – thanks,” he said.
“Thanks for backing each other up.
“You put your life on the line sometimes when you go in the truck and you know that everyone who’s there with you is well trained.
“We had a pretty big fire this year up at Laralea, a pretty fast-moving grass fire, and I had some young blokes on the back of the truck and they did a bloody good job.
“That’s the next generation coming through and it’s great the effort they put in that day.”
Stephen said he joined the CFA as a junior and started training when he was 16 to hop on the back of the truck and go to call-outs, which he said was worthwhile as a teenager.
“It’s a bit of fun, you enjoy yourself, there’s lots of challenges and it really does push you, but you’re giving back and you get to help people when they’re often having not a very good day,” he said.
“Joining at 16 was quite confronting early on – fires definitely got the heart racing and it was very full on.
“Car accidents and things like that, as a young kid, were probably the ones that really stuck with me.
“As a 16-year-old just getting your license and going to serious car accidents and things like that it’s confronting but, at the same time, it probably made me pull my head in a bit before I had my licence and made me think about making better decisions when I had my P plates – I probably wouldn’t have done as many silly things as I might have if I hadn’t seen what road trauma actually looks like.
“I think the road toll might be different if a few people saw it from a younger age.”
Stephen said the CFA was always on the lookout for new members, especially with an ageing brigade.
“We’ve probably got 15-20 active members and we could definitely do with quite a bit more, especially younger fellas,” he said.
“At the moment out of that 15 or 20, in the next five years we’re probably going to lose at least half of those, so the handful of younger ones that we have are going to start getting thin on the ground really quick.
“The ideal candidate for the CFA is anyone – anyone that’s got time and is willing to have a go.
“The obligation is as much or as little as you want it to be, there’s no actual obligation – there’s your training and things you have to complete to get in but once you’re in, if you can’t go you can’t go.
“If you can’t get to a meeting then you can’t get to a meeting and at the end of the day your family and work does have to come first.”
No matter where you lived, Stephen said there would be a local brigade which needed members.
“Right through the entire CFA, everyone is short and the numbers are declining a lot quicker than we’re getting new members and ageing a lot quicker than we’re getting young people involved,” he said.
“That’s going to be the biggest thing and the biggest challenge.
“Get out and have a crack if you’ve thought about it.
“Just do it, don’t wait for someone to tap you on the shoulder and ask you – put your hand up.”
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