A distinguished 58-year service to the CFA has seen one of our highly respected members honoured with a street named after him at the new VEMTC training facility in Ballan.
Road four at the new facility is named for District 16’s Max McLean.
Max McLean first volunteered with CFA in 1963 at Moyston Fire Brigade, aged 14. He transferred to Plenty brigade after he completed his national service, where he eventually became Captain aged 29.
He would go on to serve in the role for 21 years, before moving to the role of Group Officer for the Whittlesea-Diamond Valley Group.
Max said his goal during his time at Plenty brigade was to encourage and provide opportunities for his members to further develop their skills.
“The whole time I was at Plenty, and when I was the Group Officer for Whittlesea-Diamond Valley, I was heavily involved in the training side of things,” Max said.
“I developed my own training skills so I could train the firefighters and trainers at Plenty and increase their skills in a range of areas.”
Max eventually moved from Plenty back to Moyston brigade and quickly became the Ararat Group Training Officer before taking on the Group Officer role for Ararat Group – a role he would hold for 10 years.
Max was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2018 and an AFSM in the 2007 Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Max said his highlights from his time in CFA include trips to campaign fires and seeing the firefighters he has helped to train climb the ranks within CFA.
“The 2015 fire at Moyston where I was the Divisional Commander was a big day,” he said.
“Some of the interstate trips to NSW, or times in Gippsland on campaign fires really stand out as highlights.
“When I was back at Plenty we set training standards that they still use to this day. There’s been a lot of firefighters that have come through Plenty that have gone on to climb both Volunteer and staff ranks, so that’s been great to see.”
Max said that he is honoured to have a street named after him at the new VEMTC facility.
“It’s a great honour that someone put my name forward and I know that I’ll be in great company with the others who have had streets named after them,” he said.