History

The Yarragon Urban Fire Brigade was formed in 1944, at a public meeting held at Yarragon on the 13^th of February 1946 it was decided to form a rural fire brigade, called the Yarragon and District Rural Bush Fire Brigade, with the headquarters at Yarragon and covering the area of Yarragon, Yarragon South, Shady Creek and Allambee.

In 1946 a public appeal was held to raise money to purchase the block of land that the current station is on, ₤85 was raised from the appeal and it paid ₤60 for the land.

Also in that year it was decided to make Parks garage in Yarragon the headquarters for the brigade. Later the headquarters was shifted to the blacksmith shop in Campbell Street, when the building was shifted to Murray Street and became the first official Fire Station.

The 17^th of November 1959 was not a good day at the brigade as the fire station was burnt to the ground, and without the quick thinking and actions of Mr L.J. Petch from the hardware store, the brigade would probably have lost its truck in the fire also. The old shed was the replaced with another temporary shed to house the brigade. Then in 1982 our current building was built replacing the tin shed with a modern brick building with a watch room, toilets and separate meeting room.

The first fire-fighting appliance was a Carter Chief, a trailer mounted with a water tank and pump, towed by a member’s vehicle to a fire. The first truck at the brigade was a 1-ton single axle Dodge truck (ex-Army) fitted out by the brigade. 1962 saw the arrival of a new Austin small town unit, and then in 1973 a front mounted Austin pumper was issued to the brigade. October 1985 the Lion’s Club of Yarragon donated a trailer mounted Quick Fill Pump. December 1985 a Hino 3.2 was put into service by the brigade, supplemented in March 1987 by a Toyota Dyna Pumper. In December 1997 a composite Pumper/Tanker replaced both of our vehicles.

Since then the brigade has raised money to purchase and build a Slip-On unit which will be fitted to a members four wheel drive when needed, also we have raised money to purchase 1 mobile radio which is fitted to a members own personal vehicle and 2 portable radios.