Over the past few weeks Rushworth P-12 College VCE VM Year 12 students have gotten a taste of what it's like being a Forest Fire Management Victoria officer.
Photo by
Jemma Jones
Instead of sitting in a classroom, Rushworth students are learning how to fight fires.
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Rushworth P-12 College and Forest Fire Management Victoria have joined forces to boost community awareness about fire safety through the innovative CCLLEN Youth Take Over project.
Continuing on from last year’s success story between St Augustine’s College and disability support service Vivid Kyabram, the Youth Take Over program has moved south, enlisting seven Year 12 students from Rushworth P-12 College.
The seven-week program aims to re-engage students with their education by connecting them to meaningful community projects, empowering them to create positive change.
This time around, Year 12 VCE vocational major students have been working closely with FFMV to promote awareness of forest fire safety to the community.
Throughout term 2, students have ventured weekly into the lush conservation area south of Rushworth with FFMV experts, gaining hands-on experience in crucial areas such as forest management, emergency protocols, and environmental conservation.
Rushworth FFRV operations co-ordinator Terence Roberts said when he was approached by CCLLEN to get involved with the students at Rushworth P-12 he thought it would be a win-win situation for both sides.
“We were interested in supporting the students in gaining valuable experience, and we would like to further involve ourselves in the Rushworth community,” Mr Roberts said.
He said not only would students get hands-on experience in relation to workplace structures, safety procedures and job planning, it would also provide students with an understanding of the role that FFMV plays in the community and further extend that knowledge to the community.
Students learned how to survey the density of forest by evaluating how much thinning the forest needs.
Photo by
Jemma Jones
He acknowledged that integrating FFMV into the community presents challenges, but initiatives like this help bridge the gap and reach a broader audience.
“In communities like Rushworth, the FFMV workforce may not be inherently well integrated into the community due to living outside the area, so further embedding ourselves into the community through the school allows the role of FFMV and key messages that affect our area, such as legal and illegal firewood collection to be broadcast to the broader community,” he said.
He said students took a particular interest when it came to donning the official firefighting gear, while they learned vehicle preparedness procedures and practiced running hoses and delivering water.
Students Grace Barlow, Ella Johnstone and Isabella O’Dwyer said they had learnt a lot about what the FFRV does in Rushworth since starting the program.
“It’s great we’ve learnt heaps of new stuff,” Grace said.
“I never even knew this operation was going on until we got out here.”
The three students each said the forestry should be advertised more than it is so the community understands how much work goes into keeping the forest safe for visitors and surrounding towns.
“No-one would know how much work that’s been put in to keeping this forest healthy, and it’s right in our own backyard,” Ella said.
As part of the project, students will create promotional material for the FFRV and put out a survey to the Rushworth community to gauge an understanding of knowledge that people have about the organisation.
Students will then give the data to the FFRV for them to know what areas need improving on understanding within the community.
Grace said after learning about what they have done, it has inspired her to explore her options and possibly follow the career pathway of joining the FFRV.
The project will culminate in a community celebration on June 12 at the Rushworth library to celebrate the end of Youth Take Over 2025.
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