Brigade History

While the precise date is not known, memories of a bush fire brigade in Robertson extend back into the 1930’s.  The brigade saved a house on Knapsack Hill off Jamberoo Mountain Road during the 1939 fires – a house that over 60 years later was bought by one one of our brigade members.

Life member and former brigade Captain, Jim Wilson Snr, joined the brigade in 1946 at the age of 16 and still plays an active role in the RFS in the Wingecarribee District, both at a brigade level and until recently in our district communications brigade.

Over the years, Robertson RFB has been involved in several large campaign fires that have impacted on and around our brigade area.

Like most brigades, our first real appliance was an ex-army Blitz.  During the 70’s our capabilities were ‘modernised’ with the move to a Bedford fire appliance.  Since then we have moved through several medium tankers, including an Isuzu Cat2 tanker, a Mitsubishi Cat7 light tanker, and a Holden Rodeo PC/Support Vehicle.

In 2008 Robertson RFB was re-classified to a ‘Village 2’ brigade, recognising our increasing capacity as first response emergency service to structure fires and many motor vehicle accidents (MVA’s).  In light of this, our Cat2 tanker was replaced with a Cat11 Urban 4WD Pumper and we are now a CABA equipped brigade.

The first official station for the brigade was built in 1973, and despite having to have a wall of the office removed to fit in a second vehicle when it arrived, it served the brigade well until 2009.  In early 2009 our new 3-bay station was completed and was officially opened on May 16th.  The new station greatly increases our capabilities for training, equipment maintenance, firefighter amenities, as well as having the frameworks in place to become a strategic support and staging base during a large incident.