Shoreham’s brigade turns 75 !

**Peter Shaw (CFA Board) presents Sue Wilding (our President/Secretary) a 75 year Certificate for the Brigade**

On Thursday 12th September 2024, our Brigade members gathered for a significant awards dinner at the Pier 10 restaurant to reflect on the Brigade’s 75 years of service to the Shoreham community and to acknowledge individual milestones and contributions that members have made to the community. It was the first time a major brigade milestone has been celebrated in combination with the presentation of significant awards.

The presentations were made by CFA Board Member, Peter Shaw, who presented CFA service medals and certificates and Deputy Chief Officer Trevor Owen who awarded National Medals and Clasps. Other guests included Western Port Group Officer David Breadmore and representatives from our Auxiliary and neighbouring brigades.

Overview of the event

Our President and Secretary, Sue Wilding, welcomed guests and members opened the dinner with an interesting review of the brigade’s history from the days of knapsacks and leather beaters to today’s state-of-the art fire station and tanker. You can view Sue’s speech here.

Our Captain, Tony Wain, a brigade member 22 for years and Captain for seven, responded with his perspective of building on our history, reviewing the current situation and looking to the future. He said the brigade is in the best position it has been in for very many years – a new station, great appliances and a dedicated crew of experienced Firefighters and support members PLUS adding ten new Firefighters over the past six years. You can view Tony’s speech here.

The Major Service Awards were then made. These are listed in the section below.

The event was very significant for the CFA and is very well documented (with additional photos) on the CFA web-site here.

Major Service Awards

Several of our members were awarded special recognition for their many years of dedicated service to the CFA and the Shoreham community.

In addition, five members were awarded the National Medal and National Medal Clasps – for their service to the Nation.

Finally, some members were awarded Shoreham CFA Life Membership for the dedicated and exceptional service to our Brigade. Our photo shows Brian Alcock with Sue Wilding – Brian was one of the members awarded Shoreham Life Membership. Brian was President of our brigade for 21 years.