The CFA Board – 1945.

Deadly bushfires in the summer of 1943/44, killed 51 people, injured another 700 and destroyed over 650 buildings.

In particular, the loss of 13 lives at Yallourn on February 14, 1944, and the impact on the State’s electricity supplies when the critical brown coal fields caught alight brought these bushfires into sharp focus.

There was justifiable public outcry at the lack of government action after the similar events five years earlier in 1939.

Premier Sir Albert Dunstan and Minister for Forests Sir Albert Lind, who had both delayed legislative changes in Parliament, decided there was no alternative but to ask Judge Stretton to chair a second Royal Commission.

Stretton’s report returned to his earlier themes and once again highlighted the lack of cohesive firefighting ability outside the Melbourne area.

After nearly six months of debate and argy-bargy in State Parliament, legislation to establish the Country Fire Authority (CFA) was finally passed in two stages on 22 November and 6 December 1944.

The Chairman and Board members were appointed on 19 December 1944. The Premier announced that Mr Alexander Mercer King of Ballarat was to be appointed Chairman of the CFA Board for the first year.

The Board of the new authority met for the first time shortly after on 3 January 1945.

On 2nd April 1945, the Country Fire Authority Act came into effect, and all previous urban and rural bushfire brigades in country Victoria ceased to legally exist.

But because of the complicated politics of the merger there were two CFA Chief Officers for a time, with Alexander McPherson representing urban brigades and Charles Alfred Daw for rural brigades.

The Forests Commission held two seats on the new CFA Board with Herbert Duncan Galbraith and Joseph Firth. The FCV Chief Fire Officer, Alf Lawrence, was appointed later in 1946.

It took another 13 years until 1958 before the Forests and CFA Legislation were revised which gave clarity to the roles of each agency as well as the Chief Fire Officers.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11375460

Main Photo: L-R: Back Row – Geoffrey Graeme Sinclair (Secretary), Angus A. Cameron, E. Buckland, George Stewart, Joseph Firth (FCV), Charles Alfred Daw (Chief Officer – Rural), Alexander McPherson (Chief Officer – Urban). Front Row – T. H. Grigg, W.S. Slater, Herbert Duncan Galbraith (FCV), P. Slouch, W. Charles Moyle, Alexander Mercer King (Chairman).