By Tanya Steele
CFA Ferntree Gully has released an annual calendar for the first time to over 5,000 residences in its local area – making an outstanding effort for the brigade’s bushfire safety education and community engagement.
Residents in Ferntree Gully were treated just in time for Christmas to the free first-time release of a CFA calendar created and hand-delivered by their local brigade.
A longtime volunteer at the Ferntree Gully CFA Graham Crichton (who has clocked up 40 years of service with the brigade) has spent some time in education roles and said the idea came from a friend who had been sending Mr Crichton a yearly calendar created by the Somerville CFA.
Mr Crichton thought it would be a good idea to use in Ferntree Gully and presented it to his brigade as a concept.
“I thought to myself, this might be a better way of making money than doing a tin rattle,” he said.
“The result is we’ve produced this incredible calendar.”
The calendar provides seasonally appropriate fire safety information – with everything from fire safety tips to burn-offs.
Notably, the calendar includes a QR link each month so people can check fire danger for the day and get more in-depth information on several topics on the CFA website.
“I’d call it a smart calendar because really it’s designed to inform the community, not only about what’s going on with the fire danger but also to inform the community about who we are and how we operate,” said Mr Crichton.
“We need community members to keep the brigade viable.”
After the project was greenlit, the Ferntree Gully CFA got into action and got local sponsors from the area on board.
“We had to do a lot of foot slogging to go around and get the people to sponsor us, because if we didn’t cover our costs of printing – we couldn’t really go ahead,” said Mr Crichton.
The calendar was then thoughtfully created and printed by members and Mr Crichton said local businesses contributing as sponsors also meant a lot.
“It was done 100 per cent by brigade members, some of the smaller traders decided they would have one or two ads or even one – it all goes into making it a feasible situation,” he said.
“I hope the idea gets picked up by other brigades.”
Ferntree Gully CFA hopes to distribute more calendars by the end of 2025, hoping to get at least 10,000 printed and distributed.
“As our first attempt, we’re pretty happy,” said Mr Crichton.
