Our History

During the early years of the township of Salisbury there was little or no fire protection. Residents around the district had to rely on each other or on support from surrounding districts. By 1943, in support of the war effort, a significant ammunitions centre had developed nearby in the area that was to become Weapons Research Establish (WRE) and now known as Defence, Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO). Mr John J. White, the Director of the Emergency Fire Service, established a Fire Station at Number 2 Explosives and Filling Factory and named it the Munitions Fire District. The station had 5 firemen and 3 appliances, supervised by Senior Fireman Fred Kerr. (Fred later became the Head of the EFS/CFS). After a large fire at the munitions Factory, a group of concerned residents led by Allen (Dudley) King saw the need and formed a Brigade in the Salisbury Township. Following discussions with the District Council a levy of sixpence was placed on the landholders in the area to assist in the purchase of equipment. The Salisbury Brigade was officially formed on 28 May 1943 with Dudley the unofficial leader of the Brigade, titled Fire Control Officer.

Firefighting equipment between 1943 and 1952 was limited. This equipment consisted of some war style gas masks, canvas fire-beaters, steel knapsacks and 400 feet of hose. In 1950 an obsolete Austin Ambulance, that was previously owned by the SA Police Department, was converted to a tray top by members of the Brigade. They added a pump and length of hose and it became the first Salisbury Appliance. The old air raid siren from the Munitions Brigade replaced the church bell and remained in service until 2013. In 1952 it was also decided that a “proper” rank structure should be introduced. As a result, Keith Abbott was appointed the first Station Officer or Captain of the Brigade. Still there was no home for the Brigade, the truck was kept in the open next to the driver’s residence under a tree next to the Salisbury RSL. When the alarm sounded the driver would take the truck to the rear of the Council Chambers in John St to pick up the crew.

The Brigade “inherited” a relatively modern appliance at the end of 1963 when the Elizabeth EFS closed, and MFS took over the area previously covered by them. This appliance was a dual cab appliance and was an urban appliance carried 300 gallons of water and had a Maguris pump, however, it was a crank start that tested many of us over the years. In May 1964 the Brigade received a brand new International Fire Appliance that was funded by the District Council. It was equipped to fight both urban and rural fires. It carried 500 gallons of water and had a new state of the art Maguris pump with an electric start!

In 1970 Frank Dunn took over the role of Station Officer from Alan Savage. Frank held this position until his retirement from “active” firefighting in 1992. Although he never really retired, Frank was somewhat the modern father of the Brigade and lead it through a significant period of growth and change. He was always around, and nothing ever phased him. Even when he had his ankle and foot run over by the rear wheels of an appliance, he dismissed the injury as a scratch and wanted to continue firefighting, until a “mutiny” of the other Officers on the truck made him go to hospital. 20 odd stitches later he was released from hospital.

A new Station was opened in 1971 in Wiltshire St behind the previous Station. This was timely as the Para Hills EFS merged with the Salisbury Brigade and their appliance, which was almost the same as the Salisbury one was added to the Salisbury fleet. The Station was further expanded to enclosing the rear bays and added a new store in 1982. Between July 1973 and June 1974 Salisbury had 157 reported calls, the highest in the state at that time and this would continue to escalate in the future. In 1976 the EFS evolved into the CFS. Up until that point the EFS had been under the “control” of SA Police and most staff where serving Police Officers as opposed to being purposely employed firefighters. There was now dedicated staff, legislative responsibilities and funding, eventually taking the responsibility for this away from District Councils. This would take time and be a difficult transition for Salisbury and many others. A new rank structure was introduced, and Station Officers became Captains and Sub Station Officers became Lieutenants. Following further amendments to the Act in the mid 1980’s, Brigades were organised into Groups under the command of a Group Officer. In 1980 the Brigade appointed Harry Bowey, a past Mayor of the City of Salisbury and significant advocate of the Salisbury Brigade, as its first President. A role he held until 1988.

On 19 February 1980, the Brigade was called to be part of its first major deployment outside of its fire district to Deep Creek Conservation Park on the Fleurieu Peninsula. This was the start of the Brigades many deployments to all parts of the State and as far as Sydney and the eastern reaches of Victoria. The deployment was interesting in that there was no real coordination and incident management was nowhere near where it has grown to today. After a long night of work, we headed home and stopped off at CFS headquarters at Keswick to replace some equipment. The date was 20 February 1980 and Ash Wednesday was unfolding before our eyes. With little communication and unaware of the extent of the fire we headed home. We knew it had been a big fire, but it wasn’t until we got home we realised the extent.

16 February 1983 - Ash Wednesday Mk2 - started with a huge dust storm and by 9am the temperature was already approaching 40 degrees. Around 10 am we were called to a fire at the back of Tea Tree Gully. We responded 1 truck initially which was deployed to Range Rd South. A second crew was in the station listening as best we could on our VHF radio. Things seemed to be getting quite serious when we heard one of our members get caught in a burnover and let loose the “F” bomb. At that, the Captain Frank Dunn said, “that’s good enough for me, we are all going”. We fought the fire through the Tea Tree Gully area and back into Gumeracha continuously for 5 days. There was no such thing as a formal Strike Team and we didn’t have any real relief crews either. We slept on the floor of Tea Tree Gully and Gumeracha Stations, the back of our trucks or anywhere else. We got caught in another burnover on Tilmouth Rd which melted most of the plastic on the emergency beacons and the indicator lights on the truck but kept going despite all this. Tea Tree Gully was among a number of brigades that lost firefighters that day.

Frank Dunn retired as Captain in 1992 and was replaced by Alf Brown. As mentioned previously Frank had a long and distinguished career, he is the longest serving Captain of the Brigade and a member since 1952. He was awarded an OAM in 1987 for his service to the community particularly the Country Fire Service and his foresight of neighbouring Brigades having the ability to exchange radio frequencies after Ash Wednesday, so we could actually talk to each other. He remained active in the Brigade and was President of the Brigade from 1992 up until his passing in 2012.

In 1994 Alf Brown stood down as Captain and was replaced by Rob Styling, who held this role until he was appointed a Group Officer in 2006. In 2003, the Brigade and the CFS had reached an impasse with the Salisbury Council over the ownership of the Station in Wiltshire St. After a lifeline was provided by the State Government, the Brigade moved to the old Casey Crash repairs site on Commercial Road after it was upgraded to house a CFS Brigade. This was home to the Brigade for 10 years after which due to the buildings age and disrepair, the Brigade again moved to its current modern location in 2014. Rob was appointed to a Group Officer role in 2006 therefore standing down as Captain. He was the second longest serving Captain behind Frank Dunn. Ken Potter took on the job as Captain from that time. Ken held the role of Captain until 2012 when he too was appointed to a Group Officer role.

The Salisbury Brigade has always been fortunate to have great and visionary leadership and membership over its 75 years and during that time has provided outstanding service to not only the District of Salisbury but across the State and indeed the country. This service continues today. The next phase of the Brigade will be just as dynamic as the last 75 years and the Brigade will continue to deliver outstanding service to the community.