Paddy’s fight to protect the Margaret River

WA DBCA Firefighter and forest worker Anthony – known as Paddy by his workmates – is celebrating 43 years of continuous AWU membership protecting communities and forests along the Margaret River. P addy started as a seasonal worker for machine pine planting in 1980, and became a full-time part of the crew and union member after the 1982 winter season. For the first decade, Paddy was maintenance grader operator, and did other roading works, stoning up culverts and pine pruning. He then became a firefighter and forest worker, a job he’s held ever since.

While the summers are often spent fighting fires and protecting local homes, farms and forests, Paddy works hard year-round to maintain parks, and says there’s always something to do: “prepping for fires, slashing around buildings, road access for trucks, noxious weeds – it varies, but I look after and maintain certain area seasonally to jump on stitch-in-time jobs,” he explains.

Despite all the changes in management – four department mergers and one separation, Paddy’s team has kept the burning and firefighting side of the bush. “Firefighting hasn’t changed much,” Paddy says, “but there’s more air support, and you’re on standby for a wider area. We’ve moved from map books to GPS, iPad, and phone apps for navigation. Trucks are more equipped for the job, with burnover protection deluge systems and fire curtains.”

The major challenge has, and always will be, safety. “A lot of it gets back to safety – knowing that when you go to the briefings, you get a full picture of the sector that you’re going to be working on, changes of wind and weather, in case anything goes wrong.”

“They give you briefing of the whole fire and then the sector that you’re working on, so you understand where you are. i.e. if you’re on the flank stage, when the wind changes, you might be at the front of the fire.”

Having seen a number of EBA’s come through his crew, Paddy says it’s important for every worker to stand up and have their say. “I’ve had a few ideas along the way – different things you hear off, what people in other awards or other industries get that were a bit more advanced of where we were.”

And the fight’s still continuing. “We’ve been slipping a bit with inflation, so we’ve made progress on that stuff collectively. Our crew’s been taking action, banning on burning overtime, to try and move the needle. You’ve got to hold onto your conditions and build progress from there with every agreement.” This patience paid off, with a 16.8% increase over three years secured in the latest DBCA Parks and Wildlife EBA.

For Paddy, joining the AWU was a no-brainer, and he says it’s on all members to encourage the next generation of workers to join their union. “Show people the progress that we’ve made, so they understand it’s a worthwhile thing.”

“Everything we’ve got now, it’s because workers stood up and fought for it.” Cheers on 43 years, Paddy, and thank you for your incredibly work firefighting in our WA forests!