Feature Profiles
9 December, 2025
SUMMER READING Women to the fore
CHRIS EARL speaks with three local CFA volunteers in the first of a series profiling women firefighters in Loddon communities
THEY drop what they’re doing when the pager sounds, don the yellow overalls and head off on the back of fire trucks across the Loddon.
Others stay back at the station, managing communications with crews at the fire front, helping co-ordinate other volunteers from local Country Fire Authority brigades.
They are the women who volunteer to be part of their communities, and in some Loddon brigades, now make up half the membership where they find camaraderie in serving with the common aim of keeping people safe.
Women from all walks of life, country people who see the CFA as a great way of belonging.
Kindergarten teacher Jodie Lock may not have been on the back of a truck for a while - she’s kept busy enough as secretary of the Powlett brigade.
But as a fresh young school teacher out of university, Jodie found herself in Salt Creek, a South Australian hamlet on the outskirts of the Coorong National Park, between Menindie and Kingston.
“I had grown up in Melbourne, teaching jobs were hard to find in Victoria at the time so I took a role at the P7 school in Salt Creek - a place with about 10 houses,” she recalls.
“The previous principal had been a member of the local Country Fire Service brigade and when I arrived, they signed me up pretty quickly.”
Jodie was soon back in Victoria and married husband Aaron, already a member of the Powlett brigade.
“Three of our four children became members and I did the training for CFA about 12 years ago ... we are a small brigade and we needed numbers.”
The family tradition had some influence on Inglewood’s Claire Maxwell joining the brigade.
Dad Shane’s involvement helped. “I saw what Dad gets out of being in the brigade and joined the moment I turned 16,” said Claire, who works in Bendigo as an apprentice plumber.
“I did the CFA cadet course for people aged between 16 and 18 and loved it. We were only a small group of people from across Victoria but we learnt not just about fighting fires but leadership too.”
Claire says becoming a CFA member has easily met expectations. “I wanted to be more involved in the community and forge new friendships,”
Work has also given Claire extra opportunities as a volunteer firefighter. Her boss David Jones is captain of the Strathfieldsaye brigade and the pair has been known to drop tools and attend a fire call.
Claire’s creative streak last year saw her design the Inglewood brigade’s new polo top that members have just been kitted out with.
And continuing a family tradition is sister Rebecca who has just turned 16 - the age youngsters can join a brigade.
“Guess she looks up to Dad and I,” said Claire.
For school teacher Elissa Wilson, almost 20 years have been notched up as a CFA volunteer, first at Newbridge and since 2015 with the Inglewood brigade where she is now communication officer and holds the same position with the Loddon South group.
“I love attending our training sessions when I can - taking the vehicles out and going through scenarios we can face in the field,” she said.
“The CFA is something I do for myself, being able to help others. I can’t always go to calls, especially if I am teaching, but as volunteers we all go whenever we can.”
As communications officer, Elissa does a monthly check of radio communications in the region.
She is one of two women in leadership roles for the group. Deb Hancock is secretary as well as performing the same role with the Murphys Creek brigade.
The Loddon South group, that includes Inglewood, Powlett and Murphys Creek, currently has 418 members 269 are operational. But just 49 (18 per cent) are women.
Inglewood brigade is an exception. When Elissa joined there were not even a handful of women members, today the split is 50:50.
She said the arrival of women firefighters had meant changes at major events.
“We now need bathrooms for women ... before, we had to go behind a tree or the truck or find a toilet in the backyard. I started preparing sanitary bags to always have on fire trucks and other brigade vehicles,” she said.
The modern firefighting women are being trained well. Besides being able to drive trucks, one of Elissa’s vital skills at the fire front is using a thermal imaging camera to probe heat.
Claire, too, is itching to being qualified to drive fire trucks.
The CFA says joining a local CFA is the most rewarding way people can give back to your local community.
CFA members are dedicated and skilled and each volunteer makes a valuable contribution through the roles they perform.
The Loddon South Group volunteers hope to see more women in their brigades. They are excited that the CFA is planning a general firefighter course for women in May.
Elissa, Claire and Jodie know that not all roles require volunteers in the yellow overalls heading off to a fire on the back of a truck.
“The are roles for operational and non-operational volunteers ... everyone can play a role as a CFA volunteer,” they said.
For Elissa, the wow moment in almost 20 years with the CFA has not been on the fire front. “That was getting my 15-year medal at our brigade’s 160th anniversary last year,” she said.
And Elissa has become the face of the brigade’s Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday appeal efforts in Inglewood, stepping up as local co-ordinator.
The three are backing the campaign by CFA District 20 to recruit for women to local brigades. “We can do anything now and are welcomed as members of fire brigades,” said Elissa.