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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
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Motions

Bryant, Mr Malcolm

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (11:31): I move:

That this house congratulates Station Officer Malcolm Bryant who, on 2 March 2014, achieved the distinction of being the longest serving firefighter in the 150-year history of the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service, when he celebrated 50 years of service to the South Australian Fire Brigade.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

Dr McFETRIDGE: I have known Malcolm personally for many years. Malcolm also worked with my father, Malcolm McFetridge, who was in the Metropolitan Fire Service for nearly 30 years. Malcolm worked with him for about 25 years. Malcolm has had a distinguished career in the Metropolitan Fire Service. I will read into Hansard some of his achievements; and it has been a long and fruitful career in the Metropolitan Fire Service, a service that all South Australians should be very proud of, and I know they are, particularly the member for Colton.

Malcolm commenced service on 2 March 1964 as a recruit firefighter with the Adelaide Fire Brigade in Wakefield Street at the age of 18. He recently celebrated 50 years of service when, on 2 March 2014, he achieved the distinction of being the longest serving firefighter in the 150-year history of the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service. During this time he has served under 11 chief officers.

Prior to joining the MFS, Malcolm was a probationary constable in the South Australian police department. He undertook two years of national service with the army in the Royal Australian Engineers from 1965 to 1967, gaining a number of skills, including: wildfire firefighting techniques; urban, rural, civil and military aircraft firefighting techniques; extinguishing fires involving ordinance; civil and military aircraft personnel rescue; heavy and light petroleum fire suppression; heavy and light vehicle retrieval; and human and animal rescue techniques.

Malcolm currently holds the roles of: fire training officer; shift duty officer; fire safety officer; and station officer, operations. He was awarded the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service Exemplary Service Medal on 14 December 2012. During his extensive service with the SAMFS, he started as the chief fire officer's aide and fire brigade board chairman's driver. He graduated from firefighter to senior firefighter to station officer, fire safety officer, fire training officer (recruit training) and public relations. He has worked in fire equipment services, on reception, in corporate heritage, in development and planning, and in research and development during his 50 years with the SAMFS.

Malcolm has been stationed at MFS headquarters and at North Adelaide, Glen Osmond and St Mary's fire stations as well as in skills maintenance at Angle Park. As a fire training officer at Angle Park, Malcolm has been involved in researching and writing information manuals on different aspects of operational firefighting, including safety awareness. He has also taken on the administrative role of maintaining an efficient workplace and security of maintenance at the Angle Park Training Centre complex. As a duty officer, Malcolm's role has been to ensure that the highest operational and administrative efficiency is maintained at all times. Malcolm also has a fantastic knowledge of our state's history through the extensive research he has undertaken, particularly relating to the corporate heritage of the emergency services, including:

collating historical photographs and records of the emergency services;

historical and architectural overview of fire stations in the City of Adelaide;

researching and recording in detail the history of the emergency services from 1836 to 1882; and

supporting and providing detailed historical data to: the Country Fire Service, the National Trust, State Records, the State Archives, the Commonwealth Archives, the Land Services Group (Historical), the Adelaide City Council Archives, the Aboriginal Education Unit, the Australian Army, the Police Historical Society, Heritage South Australia, the History Trust of South Australia, the South Australia Tourism Commission, the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service staff, students and the general public.

As a fire safety officer, Malcolm was also involved with public education in the fire safety department of the South Australian Fire Service, including researching, writing and providing fire and life safety prevention, protection, environment and hazard reduction information, awareness programs for commercial and industrial building employees, health care professionals, students and the general community, both rural and urban.

Malcolm has also been involved in providing objective technical opinion to government departments, councils, the construction industry and the community of South Australia to minimise the impact of fire on individuals and organisations. Over the years Malcolm has been involved in a number of research projects, including:

assisting and researching writing the history of the British Imperial Troops in South Australia, which included the location of military barracks;

boxing and labelling all the historical records and photographs and historical negatives of the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service for State Records and Archives;

scanning all the historical photographs of the MFS and other brigades from 1836 to 2012 for the 150th celebration of the MFS on 5 November 2012;

researching the history of families in a publication that received the South Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society Award;

writing the SAMFS Electrical Hazards Manual;

writing the Operational Assessment Manual;

writing the Australian Inter-Service Incident Management System, which was nationally accredited;

writing information for the City of Adelaide buildings, including architectural history, fire stations, military forts and barracks, police stations, schools and churches;

writing the corporate heritage of the Country Fire Service; and

writing the corporate heritage of the State Emergency Service.

In 1977 Malcolm assisted Donald Newton and Keith Bailey to research and write a social history of the brigade's men and their four-footed firies, entitled When the Bells Drop—a very interesting read. In 1979 he assisted Keith Bailey in researching for the publication Brass Amongst the Copper. In 1989 he assisted Steven Schueler with a publication on the history of the appliances of the MFS.

Over a period of many years Malcolm researched and assisted in writing Muscle and Pluck Forever, which included the history of the South Australian fire services, 1840 to 1982, and which involved a significant personal financial contribution, as well as designing the dust jacket of the publication.

Malcolm's involvement in researching aspects about the social and pioneering history of South Australia concluded in 2012, assisting other authors with a total of 23 publications during this time. He also undertook a personal family genealogy project dating back to 259 AD.

Malcolm has been a member of the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Services Public Relations Council and the Fire Brigade Board's Centenary Committee. Along with four others, Malcolm was responsible for establishing the Firefighters Association (Firefighters Branch) South Australia, which was registered on 4 June 1971, now known as the United Firefighters Union of South Australia, and for 10 years was a committee member.

I place on the record my sincere gratitude to Malcolm for his long-standing public service to the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service, and to the state of South Australia, and congratulate him for achieving the distinction of being the longest-serving firefighter in the history of the fire service of South Australia.

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton) (11:38): On behalf of the government I inform the house that we wholeheartedly support the opposition motion regarding station officer Malcolm Bryant, and I, too, acknowledge Malcolm's attendance here today, along with his wife Helen, son Andrew and, of course, Commander Colin Lindsay, representing the fire service as well to pay its tribute to Malcolm here today.

The Metropolitan Fire Service, much like the Country Fire Service and the State Emergency Service, is full of individuals who have protected their community for significant periods of time, often at great personal risk to their own safety. The risk they willingly take on board is not always recognised and appreciated by the community, but is very well understood by the families, friends and colleagues of such firefighters, and that is why I acknowledge Helen and Andrew here today, because Malcolm certainly would not have served 50 years if it was not for the support provided by his family, and indeed the support provided by his colleagues.

I first met Malcolm soon after I joined the fire service in 1983—all those years ago. I can tell members that when Malcolm joined in 1964 I was seven years old, and I think Malcolm—

Dr McFetridge interjecting:

The Hon. P. CAICA: At least I don't look as old as you, mate. I apologise for replying to interjections—I should not, I digress. Madam Deputy Speaker, I would ask them to pay due respect to Malcom here today and not interject in any way whilst I am talking. I do not think 50 years of service is a record that will ever be broken—and Malcom has had a great deal of time in the training department—unless we start recruiting people who were my age in 1964, or 10 years old, or thereabouts. No-one in the future will serve 50 years. It is a record that will not ever be beaten.

As I said, I met Malcolm soon after I joined in 1983 and, also, I met his brother Leith who, along with Malcolm, had served in the United Firefighters Union South Australian branch. There was some dispute early in the piece, and there is no use denying the fact, at the time of the amalgamation of the officers' association and the firefighters' association. It was not such a pleasant time for anyone during that period, but the right thing prevailed and we became a consolidated union representing all ranks within the service. As you would expect, at any emotional time in a union's life, there were circumstances that we wish today might not have happened; but the result is one that Malcolm has, since, always supported, and that is the true representation of all firefighters by the union across all ranks within the service.

I also want to pay tribute to the many brave firefighters Malcolm has worked with, mentored and had an impact upon during his 50 years. The member for Morphett read out all the areas in which Malcolm has been involved, and there is not a firefighter working today and not a firefighter who has worked over the last 50 years who has not, in one way or another, had some involvement with Malcolm.

Indeed, the two publications I best remember, of the many he has been involved with, are, as the member for Morphett said, When the Bells Drop (which is a very good read) and Muscle & Pluck Forever. I have to be honest: I find parts of it a little bit tedious but it is a history that will never be forgotten and would not have been recorded if it was not for the work that Malcolm Bryant has done. I think any person who served in the fire service can thank Malcolm for that history.

During his 50 years in service, as was said, Malcolm has worked in the emergency services library, the fire safety department, Adelaide Station B shift and Angle Park Training Centre, where he continues to work today with great dedication and professionalism. There are so many other areas of the fire service in which Malcolm has worked and they were detailed by the member for Morphett so I will not again detail any of those.

We had a training booklet, and I remember well the member for Morphett's dad, and I think they were divisional senior superintendents at that stage and, of course, as you would expect, with a name like Morphett, he was fondly called Jock—Jock McFetridge, sorry. I was confused with the then chief officer Colin who, again, you would be very familiar with. Jock McFetridge was a very, very good senior commanding officer within our fire service and I recognise him in this contribution today. I guess the point I am making is there are so many people Malcolm has worked with who deserve that type of recognition as well, because Malcolm would not be here today without the support he has had from a whole host of people within the fire service.

This is interesting, I think. Malcolm received the Australia National Medal in 1979. I am pleased to say that I have one of those, but what I do not have is the first clasp that Malcolm got in 1989, and he received a second clasp in 1998 and a third clasp in 2008. I am not sure they have a clasp for 50 years of service—they tell me they have. I am pleased to say there is going to be at least one, but I understand it is the second.

I say that because, according to the available Metropolitan Fire Service records—and we can thank Malcolm, again, for those records being intact as well as they are—Malcolm's service surpasses the 50 years of outstanding service to the Metropolitan Fire Service by retained station officer John Elliott, who retired in 2010 after serving the Mount Gambier community with great dedication and professionalism for so many years. I trust that John is enjoying his retirement, and we wish him well.

Today, of course, the government and the parliament congratulate Malcolm Bryant for becoming the longest serving member of the Metropolitan Fire Service in its proud 150-year history. Who can believe it? A 150-year history and we have one man who has served a third of that time. As I said, I think that we will in the future only be able to recognise retained station officer John Elliott and station officer Malcolm Bryant as those who have served for 50 years.

I do not know how much time you have left. I do not bet, because I am a former gambling minister and my advice is, 'Don't bet,' but on this occasion I think it is safe for others to bet that there will not be another 50 years, Malcolm. Whatever it is that you decide to do, I wish you all the very best in retirement and know that you will spend time with your family. I also acknowledge that Malcolm and Helen's daughter, Alison, would have liked to be here today, but she is gainfully employed in Canberra as we speak and could not make the trip. I am sure in two years, or whatever it is that you have left, whenever you decide to retire, that you will spend that time with your loving family, but also reflecting on the many good experiences you have had with the fire service.

Malcolm, I personally thank you. On behalf of this parliament, I thank you for your distinguished service to your community, some of which has been spoken about today. Of course, we could go on and on, which politicians often do, but we are not going to today, because I only have three minutes left. We wish you well for the remainder of your career. I personally wish you all the best beyond your retirement. We also, as I said earlier, thank the many other members of the Metropolitan Fire Service and other emergency services in general who put themselves at great risk every day to protect our communities and make them safer and better places because of the work that they do. Congratulations, Malcolm; well done.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Before I call the member for Morphett, I would just like to add my recognition of station officer Bryant's remarkable career and contribution. I wonder if he still has time to be in the firefighters' calendar. The member for Morphett.

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (11:47): I will leave that decision about appearing on the calendar and in which month to station officer Bryant. I thank the government, particularly the member for Colton and also minister Piccolo, who came down and we had a photograph with the minister and station officer Bryant in the members' lounge, for their kind remarks in support of this motion. I particularly thank Malcolm's family, Helen, Andrew and Alison (although Alison cannot be with us), for their support for station officer Bryant, their husband and father for many years.

As I have said in this place before, firefighters are rushing to the danger when others are running away. This is something that we all acknowledge in this place, not just the MFS but the CFS and other emergency services. Malcolm is just one of many there, but in his case it is a particularly long and exemplary career. I do not know how much longer it is, Malcolm. You could retire tomorrow and feel very satisfied with what you have done for South Australia. I congratulate you on that, and I ask the house to support the motion.

Motion carried.

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