Barwon Heads CFA is leading the way with female firefighters

CONJURE an image of a firefighter in your mind odds are you’re thinking of a man.

CFA volunteer Helen Wood is the captain of the Barwon Heads CFA — one of the few female captains in Victoria — and the brigade has a third female members, one of the highest in the state. Picture: Andy Rogers

CONJURE up an image of a firefighter in your mind and odds are you’re thinking of a man.

And it’s true that for many years the work of the Country Fire Authority was a male-dominated service.

But these days about a third of volunteers are female — or roughly 12,600 women across the state. Of those, 44 are captains.

Barwon Heads CFA is representative of this social change: a third of its members are female, including the captain, Helen Wood.

Helen pictured with fellow CFA members Vivienne Moulday, Eliza Carlon, Eddie Wilson, Colin Bridges and Clive Moulday. Picture: Andy Rogers

“The CFA is a totally different organisation now to when I joined 15 years ago,” says Helen, who became a captain in 2015.

“They have done an enormous amount of work in changing attitudes and I believe when you change attitudes, you then change a culture, and that’s when you get equality and diversity.”

Helen says when she started, like so many women she had her “own battles”.

“But nothing like some you hear. There was one old member who made a sexual remark that was well below the belt and I stood up for myself, gave as good as I got, and he felt ashamed of himself.”

The 54-year-old says Barwon Heads CFA does not actively seek female recruits but women are realising there are now no barriers.

Furthermore, the CFA acknowledges each gender brings skills not necessarily reflected in the opposite sex.

“The community is not made up of all men. Barwon Heads is not made up of a third of women. It’s important to have a fair representation of society in any organisation,” she says.

“Women are good to have in emergency services, because as mothers they’re used to juggling many balls and making snap decisions and — not to take anything away from men — women are very compassionate and can be more approachable, especially in nasty house fires or car accidents, they have a gentle side.”

Helen says because the CFA is all about teamwork, she has found few physical barriers.

“I struggle to hold the biggest fire hoses but so do the blokes. Our members range from 18 up to their 60s and so the whole concept of being a volunteer in the emergency services is that you work as a team,” says Helen, who works for Barwon Health full-time.

“You’re not being put into a position where you’re on your own and teams are all about understanding strengths and weaknesses.

“When I was doing my breathing apparatus course I trained hard and blitzed it on the day — the guys couldn’t match me.”

The station has no female changerooms, but as they wear their firefighting gear over the top of their clothes, this is yet to prove a problem.

Eliza Carlon is the youngest female member of the Barwon Heads CFA, with the now 20-year-old joining in 2016.

Eliza Carlon.

Eliza says she joined her local brigade because there was a female captain. “I had friends in other brigades on the Bellarine Peninsula but knowing there was a female here persuaded me more to join — it made me feel more comfortable coming here and having a chat,” Eliza says.

“I’ve not had a male captain, but think it does make a difference having women because it brings empathy.”

Eliza says there are no physical limitations to the role, with “females just as good as males” in all areas of firefighting.

“We’re such a tight-knit brigade that if I needed help with anything, I just ask.”

Eliza has deferred her criminology degree for a year to work in hospitality and hopes to join the police force in a couple of years.

“Working in emergency services can have the emotional side of dealing with trauma, but we get to debrief with the captain and there’s a lot of support from the team as a whole,” she says.

Helen says there have been times when her male firefighting colleagues have rejected the option of trauma counselling, but as captain she makes a point of calling on counselling for all brigade members after traumatic events.

When Helen joined the CFA in 2003, her background equipped her to forge new territory for women.

At the age of 18, she became one of the first round of female recruits “allowed” to be active members of Surf Life Saving, at her local club in Barwon Heads.

“It makes me laugh by today’s parlance, but women were allowed to be active members from 1980,” says Helen, who went on to be among the first females to get their bronze medallion in Victoria.

“Before that it was all about being a member of the ladies’ auxiliary. It was just accepted that women couldn’t do the same job as men.”

She admits it’s thanks to the opportunities afforded her in the role of CFA volunteer and
captain — including just recently speaking at a statewide conference on “diversity in disaster” at the MCG — that she now has a high degree of self-belief.

She says: “Because of my work in the CFA I’ve got a lot more confidence in my own abilities. It’s made me stop doubting myself.”