Northland firefighters awarded prestigious medal for battling devastating NSW bushfires

Northland firefighters from Forest Protection Services have been awarded the Australian National Emergency Medal for their efforts fighting the devastating NSW bushfires of 2019 and 2020. Photo / Nathan Edwards

Employees of Whangārei-based Forest Protection Services have been recognised for their efforts fighting the devastating bushfires of 2019 and 2020 in New South Wales, Australia.

On Saturday, 12 Northland-based firefighters each received an Australian National Emergency Medal for their dedicated work, with deployments up to three weeks long.

In addition, 15 firefighters received the Forest and Rural Fire Association New Zealand Medal.

Some firefighters participated in multiple deployments, with the last crew home on March 3, 2020.

While some of the work was done in conjunction with Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ), a majority of the response was at the direct request of Forestry Corporation NSW, who contacted Forest Protection Services requesting aid.

The crew were extremely experienced, and according to Kevin Ihaka, managing director of Forest Protection Services, “had no problem integrating with local forestry crews in Australia, as most have had experience in Australia, Canada and the USA from previous deployments and are familiar with the systems and practices in Australia”.

Forest Protection Services firefighters were awarded the Australian National Emergency Medal at a small ceremony in Whangārei on Saturday.

On November 17, 2019, the first of the crew departed to face the fires in New South Wales.

Martin Marshall was one of the first deployments.

“It was looking at it from a professional point of view,” he explained. “We had a job to do, and our first thing was to keep our crew safe.”

He’s spent ten years with Forest Protection Services, and was one of the 25 firefighters who participated in the firefighting initiative, going on two deployments for around two to three weeks each time.

Marshall himself had been to Victoria and Tasmania a few times, but he said the scale of the NSW fires was “pretty massive”, and they were “quite a lot bigger [than] any that I’ve sort of seen before”.

The period between 2019 and 2020 when the NSW bushfires were active was dubbed the ‘Black Summer’.

The blaze swept across much of the state, claiming 34 lives, destroying 2,448 homes and burning 5.5 million hectares of land.

Here in Aotearoa, the fires saw much of the country shrouded in smoke, turning the sky an eerie orange, despite Australia being more than 2000 kilometres away.

Marshall said receiving the Australian National Emergency Medal was “unexpected”.

“I was kind of lost for words,” he said. “I feel really honoured. We go over there to do our job and help out our Australian counterparts, and the ‘thank-you’s are good enough for us, but something like this is a real honour and privilege.”

He said his colleagues feel the same about receiving the prestigious award.

“They were just blown away really, it’s pretty big,” he said

It’s clear from speaking with Marshall that he’s passionate about his job, raving about the “massive opportunities” he’s been afforded through Forest Protection Services.

“I feel like the opportunities that we’ve had - we may not have been able to do this anywhere else,” he said.