Wildfires are destroying Australia on an unthinkable scale. And while the whole country is combating the flames, we want you to take a look at the efforts of one particular crew. The Lakes Tyers Aboriginal Trust Country Fire Authority, an all-women, all-indigenous brigade who are the perfect example of their people’s resilience.
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Image credits: Country Fire Authority
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The Lakes Tyers Aboriginal Trust Country Fire Authority was set up 20 years ago. Now, Charmaine Sellings, 52, is in charge of the group, and the fully-trained team have already had some pretty big fights under their belts. Like the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009.
Image credits: Charmaine Sellings
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Like so many parts of Australia, Lake Tyers in eastern Victoria has been suffering a crippling drought, so Charmaine and the Country Fire Authority Brigade have already forgotten about a summer break. Instead, they’re taking care of their tinder-box patch of sacred land.
“Things are pretty desperate,” Charmaine told Now To Love, “we are in extreme conditions, our dams are empty and it’s not a good situation.”
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“The crew will work around the clock. We hope for a quiet summer but we fear the worst.”
Charmaine’s crew is the country’s first all-indigenous, all-female fire brigade. These mothers and grandmothers are the backbone of the remote Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust, a self-governing Aboriginal community in the State’s far east.
Image credits: NACCHOAustralia
“We are the lifeline if anything goes wrong, so we have an important role to play, and I think people are generally very grateful for what we do,” Charmaine says.
“It’s not that men aren’t welcome – in fact, we’d love the fellas to join us and help out!” Charmaine explained.
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“Every now and then a fella comes along but they don’t seem to last too long. I don’t think they like taking orders from me,” she laughed.
Image credits: NACCHOAustralia
The brigade was born two decades ago when deliberately lit fires threatened the township. During one blaze, a home burned down and since the nearest fire crew was a 45-minute-drive away, Charmaine and her friends Rhonda Thorpe and Marjorie Proctor took matters into their own hands, asking the CFA to train them up to protect the culturally significant land.
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People applauded the crew and their efforts in fighting Australia’s wildfires
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Source: boredpanda.com