An initiative by Macedon Ranges Council along with CFA, the short film is to promote fire safety and preparedness within the Macedon Ranges. It will include story's from locals on how best to make your property 'fire ready' and also reflecting on different experiences from Ash Wednesday.

It is to be realeased prior to the 2013/2014 fire season.

A big thank-you to Lt Mark Carter, FF Doug Peart and FF Jason Gruevski for giving up their time to participate in the filming which took up most of Tuesday afternoon.

Each year the Gisborne Fire Brigade has the honour and opportunity to march alongside veteran Diggers for the ANZAC service held at the War Memorial in Howey Reserve, Gisborne.

Gisborne is also a LP Gas response brigade with a specialist team that are highly trained in this area. The LPG flareoff unit can be called in by neighbouring brigades at anytime a LP Gas cylinder has been compromised and/ or leaking. This unit covers a wide area, some areas included are Sunbury, Bacchus Marsh, Kyneton, Romsey and Woodend.

"With the fire season wrapping up and calls for grass and scrub fires slowing down, calls for other incidents don't stop and that's why it's important for our members to continue training and work on their skills over the cooler months" said 1st Lt Terry Borg.

Fireys and Scouts from Gisborne went to the streets door knocking just about every house hoping to get some coin to go towards life saving equipment for the Royal Childrens Hospital. 

With the great co-ordination of 4th Lieutenant Mark Carter both firefighters and scouts were able to cover all of Gisborne by late afternoon which showed in the amount of which the members collected by the end of the day.

Williamsons Foodworks raised a whopping $30,000 from both their Gisborne and Sunbury stores by donating all profits by opening both stores between 9am and 1pm on the day, all staff volunteered their time and all wages contributed to the over all amount raised.

This is the second year Williamsons Foodworks has opened the doors on Good Friday, last year raising $20,000.

Also a big thankyou to GISBUS who donated four of thier buses for the day to ferry firefighters and scouts around the township.

On behalf of the RCH appeal, Gisborne Fire Brigade would like to thank Williamsons Foodworks and the Gisborne Community for digging deep this year and beating last years effort in which we will strive to better for years to come.

The night started off with a half hour theory session, then out side to the training area where the Scouts got to show us what they had learnt.

In the past we have done simalar sessions for school students and even teachers have had training in this area.

Imagine a scene where all the competition entries were placed on a central table where our intrepid crew slaved away under the watchful eyes of at least 100 members of the Suncorp teams, each making sure that no special favours were given.

For just over an hour our poor hard working Members diced and sliced, tasted and tested, eventually choosing the three major prize winners.   The competition was so fierce that it was decided to award an additional five runner-up prizes which were generously supplied by Suncorp.

Fortunately the fire station is down the hill from the AAMI Call Centre building and our three Members managed a return to station somewhat fuller - and wiser - than when they left.

Our thanks go to Emma Moore from AAMI for arranging the event, to the teams that entered the competition and to all the many staff at Suncorp for their generosity.

Every year the Gisborne Fire Brigade works tirelessly with the Gisborne Scouts Club by working the CBD and door knocking homes to raise money for life saving equipment for the RCH.

"If you happen to be home this Good Friday, listen out for a knock on the door and give generously for this extremely important cause" said Comms Officer Bevan Moody.

"Each year we try and better our last, and with all proceeds going to the RCH, please dig deep and get Gisborne on the map this year!" Mr Moody added.

Good Friday is on the 29th March.

Mount St Leonards & Kangaroo Ground fire towers both confirmed thick black smoke showing and building in size. Senior Station Officer Paul Elso from Craigieburn brigade confirmed a grass & scrub fire not yet under control and quickly called for 20 tankers and aircraft support.

The fire continued to burn in a southerly direction and very quickly impacted on traffic on the Hume Freeway. Police closed off the freeway and CFA, MFB and DSE crews began to arrive and protect assets such as factories and homes in the area.

More strike teams arrived and were rapidly deployed as the fire ran along the freeway reserve and headed across long grass towards buildings. A staging area for vehicles was organised by the Gisborne ICC at the Epping Recreational Reserve.

Aircraft returning from the Grampians fire stopped at Gisborne's Dixon field for a 'HOT' refuel before responding to the Donnybrook fire. They continued using Gisborne as a refuel point for the remainder of the day. The 6 aircraft staged over night and returned the next morning.

Gisborne crew members assisted with fire safety coverage whilst the DSE fuel tankers filled up each chopper, also Brigade members provided a BBQ meal and drinks for pilots and support crew.

Photo's courtesy: FF Joel Wood and Comms Bevan Moody

Just after 4:30pm on Saturday 9 Feb a column of smoke was seen rising around Mt Charlie near Mt Macedon.

Pretty Sally & Mount Hickey Fire Towers confirmed the smoke and stated the fire was building in size. DGO Boodle upgraded the tankers 5 to 10 and aircraft support responded.

Within 30 minutes tanker requirements were upgraded to 20. The fire was in a heavily treed mountain-side of Parks and private land with several farms and homes dotted through the area.

Dozers were called in as ground crews were unable to safely work amongst the trees as branches were dropping regularly. The helitacks were doing a great job from above but were unable to continue into the night for safety reasons.

Overnight, tankers were spread around the outside perimeter of the fire to monitor for hot spots until daylight when the helitaks would come back again.

Gisbourne ICC was setup to co-ordinate logistics and assist with planning. Alerts were sent out to allow residents to prepare and action their fireplans.

Crews worked day and night to try and have the fire fully contained by the end of the week, as the temperature's are expected to be in the 30's and the fire risk will increase again.

Firefighters worked extremely hard and achieved this outcome by Tuesday, and the fire was handed back to local control Tuesday night.

Hesket and Romsey Brigades will continue to patrol and monitor the scene through out the week to ensure the area is fully extinguished.