The two of us

Brett Eastwood (left) and Eddie Tichelaar (right)

 

Eddie Tichelaar and Brett Eastwood first crossed paths in the early 1980s when they were both members of Montrose Fire Brigade.

 

Although Brett is no longer a member, their friendship has endured for more than 40 years. These days they are key members of the team behind Eastey Fire Trucks, an organisation that restores CFA trucks and celebrates CFA’s rich history.

Eddie Tichelaar

"From memory I was about 19 so it would have been 1982-83. I was in Montrose Fire Brigade and still am. Brett joined the brigade as a Junior which is how I got to know him. 

Back in the day there was no such terminology as a ‘mentor’, but a number of us in the brigade mentored Brett. We showed him the ropes. We trained him in the art of firefighting at the time. 

Brett was a shy young kid. My first impression was he needed a bit of guidance. We just saw a young kid who we all needed to engage with and make him feel part of the team.

I was a driver of the truck because I was one of the first ones there. When Brett was old enough to respond he would often sit in the back of the truck. 

A little bit later our brigade specialised in LPG flare-off. As Brett became a senior member he started responding to LPG incidents. One job that comes to mind was when a car had driven into a large LPG cylinder. I think they call them ‘big boy’ cylinders, like the ones they have at service stations. The car was on fire and subsequently the cylinder was on fire. But there were two neighbouring cylinders that were also being impacted by the fire. When you first see it, you think, “right, how are we going to deal with that?” I looked at Brett and I reckon he’d just worked out what the colour of adrenaline was!

Brett was in the brigade for about 20 years before his life changed and he moved away from Montrose. But we've stayed connected all that time. It would've been around 2019, pre-COVID, when he moved back to Montrose and our friendship took off again. 

It’s best to say it this way. When you become a member of CFA there’s an invisible point in time in your life when CFA is in your blood. Suddenly, it’s in your blood and your life is about CFA. 

So even though Brett had left the brigade after 20 years, it was still always in his blood. One day I said to him. “I'd love to do up an Austin front-mounted pumper”, and three weeks later he tapped me on the shoulder and said, “I found one, we’re going to do it”. That to me was enough evidence that CFA was still in his blood. Then four restored trucks later, it's still in his blood and he just loves it. 

In my line of work, I was very much involved in dealing with functions and events. Brett is more involved in decision-making for logistics and the people that he and his company employ. We will often get calls from brigades asking us if we can come to their open day. We tend to find that I will mostly handle those enquiries. Brett can deal with his business affairs and if enquiries come in we will always talk to each other about it. 

A couple of times we've had some tough talks where one of us has said “you shouldn't have said this, or you shouldn't have said that”.

Talking often fixes the problem, and being on the same page. I don’t want to say it’s like a marriage, but you've just got to talk and work things out. 

Brett’s passion blows me away – leaving an organisation for personal reasons and still having it in his blood. He has the passion to continue this journey. The one thing that he and I often say is that as young kids you don't realise the history you’re creating. It's only 20, 30, 40 years down the track that you then realise that you've been part of that history. Both of us are on a similar page when it comes to maintaining that history because we’ve lived it. 

I’d like people to know he’s a very reserved person. He’s reserved but loyal. He is a loyal friend to anyone that crosses his path. If they don't cross the line and create issues, he will have your back and look after you."

Brett Eastwood

"I was 13 years old when I joined Montrose Fire Brigade as a Junior. Eddie was a senior member then, back in 1983. I can remember that I hit it off with Eddie and a number of other senior guys at Montrose. They had a buddy system and the brigade was very family-oriented in that era.

We had at least eight to 10 years of regularly being on the same truck. We were both always on the first truck, so our bond started there with being together so much. I lived a 10-minute walk from the station and a two-minute drive. Before I got my driver’s licence Eddie would pick me up and drop me off in his little yellow car. It was the ugliest car you’ve ever seen.

I looked up to Eddie and a couple of others for guidance, not only at the brigade but guidance in life too. Fast forward all these years later, and we’re still friends and we're still connected but now with a new bond. He was an important mentor for us younger guys at the brigade. That journey has definitely continued with Eastey Fire Trucks. And he’s also been there offering guidance in my personal life too. 

Obviously you’re not going to agree 100 per cent of the time, so you need a discussion. In our current roles at Eastey Fire Trucks, if we don’t see eye to eye we talk about it. We come to a happy medium. 

We talk daily, which might be a little bit more than what we both want. But we talk daily in relation to the best way to navigate something. Eighty per cent of our conversations are about Eastey Fire Trucks and 20 per cent about life.

Eddie’s biggest strength is probably my biggest weakness – putting a lot of thought into decision-making. I’ll probably make a decision a bit quicker than he would, and that’s sometimes turned out to be the right decision and sometimes the wrong decision. One of the most important things I’ve learned from Eddie is decision-making. He gives a different perspective on things, and we’ll talk it out.

I think about a decision a little bit longer now than I used to. He’s taught me to slow down. He’ll suggest we think about A, B and C before reaching a mutual agreement. 

Eddie is the first person to drop everything to help me out. A lot of people look at Eastey Fire Trucks and think that it’s all me. But I can’t do it without a team of people and Eddie is a key player in that. He’s not just a business partner, he’s also my friend. I would say we’ve had a brotherly relationship through life. 

I wouldn't be where I am today, both business-wise and personally, without CFA and Montrose Fire Brigade. I have probably spent more time in my life listening to mentors like Eddie and other guys at Montrose, than I did my own family.

Between the ages of 13 and 31, I was in the CFA environment for 20 hours a week. During those 18 years of my life I actually learned more from those key brigade people than I did during my own upbringing, which was perfect by the way. But my 18 years with Montrose was my life. That friendship has continued with numerous Montrose members. 

You can join a local footy club and fall in with the wrong crowd and do silly things, but at a brigade you’re shielded from that because you’re helping the community.

I often wonder where my life might’ve gone if I hadn’t joined Montrose Fire Brigade."

 

Submitted by	News and Media