By Corey Everitt
Longtime firefighter known as “mother” in the Pakenham Upper Brigade, Lisa Hicks has been honoured this Australia Day for almost 50 years of service to the CFA.
Ms Hicks was granted an Australian Fire Service Medal (AFSM) in this year’s Australia Day Honours for distinguished service to the CFA.
To Ms Hicks, the accolade has left her “gobsmacked” as the time has “gone so fast.”
“You don’t realise how much you do until somebody actually points it out to you,” she said.
“I now work for the organisation as well, for me it’s 24-7, I think you have to love it to do it for so long.”
She joins her husband, Stephen Hicks, who was awarded an AFSM as part of the King’s Birthday Honours last year.
Currently a member of the Pakenham Upper Fire Brigade, she first joined the Narre Warren North Brigade when she was 15 years old in 1975.
Ms Hicks was the first woman to join the brigade, she would meet Mr Hicks there when he was serving as a lieutenant at the time.
“Training was a little different,” she reflected.
“When I went to do my hot fire training, there was nowhere for me to change.
“I had to go to somebody else’s house to have my shower before the dinner.”
They married in September 1982, it was less than six months after they said their vows when they were called out on 16 February 1983, the Ash Wednesday bushfires.
“Ash Wednesday was my first real big one, we had a few, but nothing like this,” she said.
“That was horrendous, the fire, yes, but losing our friends as well.”
Twelve firefighters lost their lives in Upper Beaconsfield that day, six of them would depart for their last trip out of Narre Warren North Station: Dorothy Balcombe, Lloyd Donovan, Murray Forsyth, Neil Henry, Darrell Wilkes and Captain John Minett.
The brigade had continued to fight the fires while knowing funerals would follow it, newlyweds Mr and Ms Hicks wouldn’t be reunited for more than a week.
“We heard it on the radio while we were out, hearing things and not knowing until the next day,” Ms Hicks said.
“And we were still out there fighting while we were knowing that they’d lost their lives, it was weeks of heartache because you had all the funerals to go to and it was just disbelief.”
Ash Wednesday marks how much has changed in CFA practice in her 50 years, a change that Ms Hick herself played a part in.
Ms Hicks has served in supporting roles for the wider local area and for the former Pakenham Incident Control Centre (ICC).
She has worked in many ICCs over the years where the CFA has become more coordinated, disciplined and most of all safer in their work.
“Since then we’ve got crew protection, we’ve got all the safety features and we’re a little bit more cautious,” she said.
“Out in the fire ground, it’s a different area altogether, they’ve got the fire to tackle.
“But then when it’s those large ones, the Incident Control Centre tells them how to do it and where to place things.
“We can have 100 at a time in one control centre on our really bad days like Black Saturday, we held that out at Pakenham.”
Ms Hicks has also seen Strike Teams be implemented into CFA practice where several trucks form a unit with a central command where no single tanker is ever unaccounted for.
About 35 years ago, the Hicks would move to Pakenham Upper as the family got to big for the old house.
For the past 18 years, Ms Hicks has worked full-time for the CFA. Today, she is a Public Information Officer providing support for all 16 Cardinia brigades in such activities as the annual group training plan.
The role also brings her into the community teaching fire preparedness to all from children to seniors.
“From the Ash Wednesday, we were talking about how to connect with the community quicker,” she said.
“So they had public information set up, they do community safety, the warnings, the media.”
She leads several General Firefighter Courses for members across Cardinia among her continuing operational role in call-outs and field management support for complex fire response.
Her home is still Pakenham Upper where she is known as ‘mother’ by members of the brigade.
Ms Hicks is honoured by the award but she credits the CFA family most of all.
“It doesn’t seem like 50 years, I haven’t known anything other than CFA,” she said.
“You don’t do it for the accolades and the reward I get is seeing the effects that I might have, the teachings I might be able to instill in others.
“It’s like a big family here, and it’s mostly the same for all of the brigades, when you go away, you may not know them before the the fire but by the end, you’re another big family.
“I’ve seen a lot. I’ve done a lot. It’s been my life.”
Collectively, Lisa and Stephen have given a century of service to the CFA.
