Speeches and Messages

Friday, 14 March 2025
Government House
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC

Bujari gamarruwa, Diyn Babana Gamarada Gadigal Ngura

In greeting you in the language of this land’s Traditional Owners, the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, I welcome you to Government House and pay my respects to Gadigal Elders, past, present and emerging.

I acknowledge the continuing care of Country by First Nations women and men which has protected this land through cultural burns and fire practice, drawing on tens of thousands of years of knowledge.

The Honourable Jodie Harrison MP, Minister for Women, for Seniors, and for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, and Member for Charlestown, Parliament of NSW
Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell AFSM, Fire and Rescue NSW
Assistant Commissioner Clare Lorenzen, representing Commissioner Dominic Morgan, NSW Ambulance
Retired Commissioner Carlene York APM, NSW State Emergency Service, and Board Member, Girls on Fire Australia.

1985 was a momentous year in Australia for various reasons. Items which made national headlines included Uluru and Kata Tjuta being returned to Traditional Owners of those lands. John Howard was elected leader of the Opposition.

What didn’t make the headlines – and should have, was that event in March 1985, when the first four professional permanent women firefighters graduated from the NSW Fire Brigade’s Alexandria Training College.

Senior Firefighter Denise Butcher was the first female Permanent Firefighter, celebrating 40 years of service tomorrow and is now an operator at the Communication Centre at Alexandria.

Heather Barnes was the first HAZMAT qualified female and also became a Senior Firefighter.

Dawn Maynard, fairly recently retired as a Station Officer, was also among the first female Permanent Firefighters, and the first to work as Fire Brigade Instructor.

Allison Meenahan, retired, hasn’t been able to join us.[1]

This evening, we are honoured by the presence of Denise, Heather, and Dawn, together with Jackie Turner, the first retained women’s firefighter, appointed in 1986. Their dedication is reflected in their combined 108 years of combined service.

As with a great deal of institutional and social change, the contributions of women in the NSW Fire Brigade built on the achievements of those who went before them.

Museum of Fire Chief Executive Officer, Belinda McMartin, remarked at the International Women’s Day launch of the “Breaking Barriers Battling Blazes” exhibition, that: “Women have always contributed to the fire protection of NSW. Regionally, in many instances, it was the women who ‘manned’ the fire station phones while their husbands and sons were at their primary place of work.”[2]

In 1901, the “Armidale Amazons” were a group of young women training in fire-fighting drills and duties even before women had the right to vote in NSW.[3] It was the first all-female volunteer firefighting brigade,[4] under Minnie Webb, the first female Captain.[5] Trained by her father, the Armidale Amazons performed exhibitions of dramatic fire drills alongside male crews.

In 1904, the Singleton Argus, under the header “What Girls Can Do”, reported on one of these demonstrations.

The young women were said to have: “reared the extending ladder against a stage 80ft high, scaled the ladder the full height, about 10ft, and shot streams of water from the hose … from the stage. One of the girls then carried a comrade on her shoulders down the ladder, and two others jumped from the top of the stage into a sheet held by a number of firemen on the ground.”[6]

Whilst the Amazons were essentially a performing troupe, and disbanded after 4-5 years,[7] women’s firefighting activities took on a new significance during the Second World War, with so many men away in defence service.

The establishment of the Women’s Fire Auxiliary in 1941, under Dorothy Barrett,[8] saw women sign up for the Auxiliary volunteer firefighters, a division of the Women’s Australian National Service, championed by Lady Wakehurst, wife of the then Governor of New South Wales, who was elected president.

With training conducted by the officers of the NSW Fire Brigade, the eight-week course included air raid procedures, how to deal with an incendiary bomb, rescue procedures and first aid[9] - as happened in so many industries and occupations that women had maintained during the war years.

It would not be until 1982, that far-reaching change would come with the appointment of the first woman, Dr Kris Klugman OAM, to the Fire Brigade’s Board of Commissioners. We are honoured to have Dr Klugman here this evening.

A trailblazer in every sense, Dr Klugman played an important part in shaping the organisation, in advocating for merit-based promotion and education. In challenging the status quo, she also challenged the ‘only male firefighter’ concept, undertaking the physical entry test herself to show that women were capable of firefighting duties.

The time, itself, was, ripe for change. In 1984, the implementation of the Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act re-defined the role of women in Australian society and legislated for women to have access to the same careers as men. Soon after, a legal change within the Fire Brigade’s constitution changed the requirements for entry into the Fire Brigade, no longer restricting it by male body standards.[10]

The rest, as they say is history – a history lived by many here and, no doubt, the stories will flow and continue long into this evening.

Tonight, we also recognise Fire and Rescue NSW’s most senior current serving female firefighter, here in this room, Assistant Commissioner Cheryl Steer AFSM.

Cheryl joined Fire and Rescue NSW almost 30 years ago and is one of this generation’s giants: commander of regional operations, veteran of a number of emergency incidents and mentor to women firefighters who has documented the 40 years of women’s fire history within Fire and Rescue.[11] It was wonderful to invest Cheryl with her Australian Fire Service Medal last September here at Government House.[12]

This evening is about acknowledging how far women have come in Fire and Rescue NSW and how far there is still to go to increase the numbers of women, and on the ladders of leadership in emergency services.

Women make up 12% of operational staff in Fire and Rescue NSW. At last count, over 92 are full-time permanent firefighters and 160 part-time.[13] With numbers increasing each year, women contribute to a diverse and highly skilled workforce who are ready and willing to serve our community with courage and care.

Tonight is about thanking each of you – the skilful, responsive, flexible, fit, and highly trained professional women of Fire and Rescue NSW, and other emergency services represented who, each day, respond to challenging emergency situations at considerable personal risk and danger.

Thank you for all you do for our community, and in partnership with other emergency services, including your contribution to the past week’s response to the Northern Rivers cyclone and flood emergency.[14]

At last year’s 140th anniversary celebration of Fire and Rescue NSW, I made the comment that “we stand on the shoulders of giants”.[15]

Tonight, we acknowledge you as “Amazons”, upon whose strong shoulders, future generations will stand.

Here’s to the next 40 years of women in Fire and Rescue NSW!

[1] https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=933449660768085&id=222515581861500

[2] 6 March 2025 Media Release: https://www.fire.nsw.gov.au/incident.php?record=rec350PfQv5dlBBrg

[3] Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902

[4] https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/media/45829

[5] http://womeninfirefighting.blogspot.com/p/the-amazons-c1901-1903.html

[6] Singleton Argus, Saturday, 2 January 1904:

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/79380978

Another report from Trove:

Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser, 15 February 1901: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/191925513