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A National Calling - Tenterfield Strike Team December 2009

On the 14th December; the Brigade sent away 6 members on a deployment to Tenterfield to support local NSW RFS crews with a number of blazes. John and Matt went down in RV81 with John being the strike team leader. Dave, Steve W and Jason went down in RV52. Steve P got a ride in Greenbank 51. Thanks to Jason and John for the following summary.

Vehicles assembled at Mt Forbes RFB station for deployment. The briefing was given by Kaye from Area Office and John on what was known as the R1D Strike Team. Jimboomba 51 did'nt make it for the photo; John W from Jimboomba must have got lost.

Day 3 The Strike Team on route from Liston RFS Fire Station to the fireground. Day 2 was declared too unsafe to carry out any fireground operations due to the storm on Monday. The report we had was that between 4 – 40 mm of rain had fallen over the general area in Mondays storm. A check revealed not a millimetre was received where we were required to continue backburning operations to the Boonoo Boonoo river. The SMEACS briefing on the days activities had been conducted in the Liston Community Hall.

Day 3: The Strike Team on route from the “Vegie Patch” to “The Tops” lead by Deputy Group Captain Frank Paterson and Liston 1 Captain David Inch. "The Tops" is an area near Bookookara NP, the western flank of what was known as the Lincoln Hills Fire.

The back burn put in by Greenbank 51 to deepen containment lines between "The Vege Patch" and "The Tops". Burning out of unburnt pockets was required to deepen the containment lines on the Half Moon Track. The previous Strike Team from the North Coast had done a great job.

The back burn begins in earnest at "The Tops". We were told the track down to Boonooboonoo River was quote: "very steep and very slippery." We were expecting it to be like the infamous "George's Track", which luckily was not the case. An 800m drop over a distance of 1000m. The light and medium appliances handled the task with ease with our best drivers in the hot seats.

Day 4 with the main fire burning in the hills about 1.5 km from the Western Flank containment lines.

Day 4 on the way out for the last time. Comments from crews: "Did we do that?" and "We burned good." We also had some help from a chopper with AI (aerial incendiaries) drop. Plenty of smoke as the backburn at “The Tops” and on the Half Moon Track to the Boonoo Boonoo river begin to meet up.

Convoy heading out and great photo opportunities.

Crews on Tally 51 taking photos of the plume we left.

All the Strike Team crew members were really well looked after (didn’t starve or suffer dehydration) on the fireground by the ladies of Liston RFS and their support people. Chrissee and the rest of the logistics team kept the food and drink coming and never stopped.

Thanks also to our QFRS Liason Officers based at Glen Innes Dave Wandell and Kerry Cumner.

Thanks also to the staff at the High Street Motor Inn (Tony and Co) and the Top of the Hill resort.

Everyones help and assistance was much appreciated.

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