Award-winning RFS volunteer starts full-time role
NSW Rural Fire Service Group Captain Craig Robertson is heading to Dubbo for the operations officers course then on to a full-time job with the RFS
A local RFS legend – with 25 years as an emergency services volunteer – is about to start a new chapter in his career protecting the Illawarra community.
NSW Rural Fire Service Group Captain Craig Robertson AFSM (Australian Fire Service Medal, 2015) will now move from a quarter century of volunteer duties to take up a full-time role with the RFS as an operational officer (OpO) level 1.
He says it’s “a sad moment” moving on from his volunteer work, but he’s “very happy” with the new full-time RFS role.
“I'll get paid to do something that I've enjoyed doing as a volunteer,” Craig told The Flame. “At the end of the day, you have to move forward.”
He will head to the RFS State Training Academy in Dubbo for 11 weeks of intensive training with a scheduled start in late August.
“I'll go through the RFS operations officers course.
“In the RFS, we have operations officer 1, 2, and 3, so I'll go in as operations officer 1, then if I decide to work my way up to a 2 or a 3 I'll do that or, if not, I'll stay as an OpO 1.
“I’ll do an induction – I’m out there [in Dubbo] for 11 weeks training, but I'll come home in between that, of a weekend.
“It's all the back-end side that goes on in the RFS district offices and area command and things like that.
“Currently I'm doing learning development, so that's part of our training for our volunteers in the Illawarra.
“And then, of course, once we have fires and different things like that, I’ll go in and do operations stuff in the control centres.”
Among his many accolades over the years, Craig received – on May 4, 2023 – the Commissioner’s Commendation for Bravery for his role in rescuing a man from the flooded Hacking River in Otford on July 2, 2022.
