From a teenager who almost didn’t pass CFA membership’s initial muster because he still wasn’t as tall as normally preferred, Ron Hooper’s legacy today looms large over Echuca’s frontline firefighters.
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And the wider community.
In March 2027, Ron will clock up 70 years of unbroken service with the local fire brigade, but that service and dedication was recognised recently when his beloved brigade christened its new fire command vehicle as the Ron Hooper.
The recognition puts him alongside local fire brigade legends Alan ‘Pa’ Eley, who has a pumper named for him, and Greg Allisey, whose name is on the brigade support vehicle.
Ron said the brigade voted on nominating his name for the new FCV at a meeting while he was out of the room on a phone call.
It took time going through the CFA hierarchy for approval, but when he was told about it in May, he was left gobsmacked.
“When they told me at the May meeting, I never saw it coming, I had no idea,” Ron said.
“It was a shock and a surprise, and of course, it is such an honour and very humbling to think this has happened.’’
Ron was joined by his wife Joy and extended family and friends at Echuca Fire Station to celebrate the occasion and to catch up with many other long-serving and past members of the brigade.
The Hooper family’s CFA story runs deep – it was almost inevitable Ron would end up in uniform.
Many of his earliest memories are of summer evenings when his mother walked him and his siblings down to brigade training in Pakenham St, Echuca, to watch his older brothers Kevin and Graeme doing running and drills.
In those days, and those days would be the late 1940s and early 1950s, Pa Eley’s parents were the resident officers – technically, his father was the resident officer, but as Ron explained, if you were married, your wife got the gig by default.
He said with all the sprinkler alarms connected to that station, if the officer was at his day job, his wife was in charge. And vice versa.
Ron spent a lot of time watching his older brothers train and when the Eleys retired, brother Kevin took over as resident officer – which was also a great way to get a start in life as you were rent-free.
‘’And I went from watching things to getting seriously involved as a ‘volunteer’ worker,’’ Ron said.
“Back then, there was always a Saturday night dance in the fire station, and it was my job to help Kevin get the floor cleared and everything set up for the crowd that would come in.
“I was also his odd job boy, such as lighting the wooden fire for the water heater, so everyone could have a shower after training.
“So eventually, I applied to join, at 16, and was still growing, so had to get CFA approval and eventually the deputy chief officer came to Echuca and both Henry Atkinson and I were signed on at the same time.”
By the time Ron and a local lass called Joy got serious, and got engaged, he was secretary and on February 14, 1966 – and if you were expecting a romantic twist, you’re wrong – the brigade formed its women’s auxiliary to help raise funds for the training track to be moved from Pakenham St to Victoria Park.
Clearly, Joy knew what she was getting in for.
Apparently, the brigade had promised the council it would raise “a couple of thousand pounds” to help fund the move, a target which became more attainable as a couple of thousand dollars (February 14, 1966, being the day the country went decimal for those of us old enough to remember) there being $2 for every old pound.
As expected, the hardworking and often long-suffering wives very quickly stumped up the cash and the track moved before, in 1968, the new station (now the very old small one near the fast-disappearing water tower) opened in time for Echuca to host the 1968 fire brigade championships.
In 1958, when Frank Grimwood stepped down as secretary/treasurer after a lazy 58 straight years in the role, the position was eventually split into two – secretary and treasurer.
A while later, long-serving firey Fred Evans looked around the room, pointed at Ron and said, “you’re a banker, you can do it”.
“I only filled that job for 36 years, standing down in 1995 when I became captain,” Ron grins.
Volunteering is steeped in the Hooper DNA.
But Ron committed his time to – mostly – the one thing because he believed if you were going to do something you might as well do it right and to the best of your ability.
He might not be on the fire truck that much these days, so with his newfound octogenarian spare time, he has also become something of a mover and shaker in the region’s indoor bowls scene, organising everything from games to quarterly tournaments.
But on Saturday, generations of CFA sworn-in Hoopers joined the grand old man of the clan to celebrate the FCV being named in his honour.
It is a family roll which includes the brothers who went before him to his own children and now his grandchildren, here in Echuca and also in Freshwater Creek near Geelong.
And the FCV which will bear his name is a classic example of a CFA brigade helping itself to help the community.
Echuca raised more than $100,000 needed to buy the unit and now the brigade is better equipped, the community better protected and the Hooper name will roll on.