CFA Firefighter Diana Billingsley
CFA Firefighter Diana Billingsley (Di) was recognised in today’s Australia Day Honours, receiving an Australian Fire Service Medal, for her 24 years of dedicated service to CFA and her community.
Di joined the Boolarra Fire Brigade as one of the first female members in 1998 after the brigade put a call out looking for people who were available to respond to call outs during the day. She is known for being a proactive, solution-focused and empathetic member.
"My husband was a member and at that time I was just at home looking after the kids so I thought 'yeah I could do that' and I never looked back," Di said.
As an operational volunteer, Di has attended a range of incidents in the last two decades, including responding to the Delburn Complex fire a week before the Black Saturday fires in 2009 which Di attended as a crew leader
"We were tasked to go and help at Churchill when the Black Saturday fires took off and that was hard because with the Delburn fire was still going, we knew it was all happening on our home turf," Di said.
"That time was a bit of a blur. We were all mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted."
She said being a volunteer and responding to incidents in a small community is often a challenge but she is proud that she can give back to her community.
"In a small community incidents are not just incidents, they have names attached to them," Di said.
"I watched my best friends house explode in the Delburn fires, I was teaching year 12 in Churchill after Black Saturday and over half the students I taught were impacted either by Black Saturday or Delburn, the kids knew the people who died, or they had lost their homes."
Di was also a crew leader during the 2019/20 Black Summer fires where she flew in to provide support and work proactively with communities.
Di has become one of CFA’s most experienced volunteer trainers and assessors, having delivered a substantial number of courses to volunteers.
In October 2023 in her role as a trainer and assessor Di was deployed to the Northern Territory to conduct essential training in Alice Springs and Darwin for volunteers and park rangers.
While on deployment, Mrs Billingsley’s brother was tragically killed in an aircraft accident while conducting aerial mapping on fires in Queensland.
Aware that the CFA would expect, and fully support, her to return home, Di made the decision of her own accord to first finish the training she had started.
Di serves on the CFA Women’s Advisory Committee driving positive change for women in her district and beyond and pours her time into the Captain Peer Mentor Program and was instrumental in the creation of District 27 from the proposal through to the development.
At the time, consultation occurred with Captains, Di would then provide feedback and suggestion to ensure that the district would actively involve volunteers and work the right way to benefit Brigades.
She has also done a stint as a Captain from 2014 to 2021. During her time as captain, she implemented a debriefing process where the brigade discusses what happened, what went well and ways to improve after each incident.
Though it is customary for brigades to debrief after significant incidents and training, Di implemented debriefing after all incidents that the brigade attends. This still occurs even after Di stepped down from her role as Captain in 2021.
"I don't do what I do for awards or personal acclaim. There are things that need to be done, sometimes they are things that aren't nice, but somebody has to step up and do those things and I am honored that I'm able to give to my community and I am truly so proud to be a CFA volunteer,” Di said.
"I am especially proud to be a part of the Boolarra Brigade, and I am incredibly grateful to all the amazing people I have worked with and learned from over the years, all these years I have never been treated with anything but respect.
"I am so incredibly grateful."