However, I was able to meet with the I.F.E. National Executive of Australia and the National Representatives. It was striking to me that the Branch faces similar problems to all other Branches across the World. However, they have the added problem, which they identify as the tyranny of distance. Despite this the Branch is active in many different ways across the country. Many initiatives are under way to attract new members including a C.P.D. system to be put forward to each fire authority and to fire safety engineering companies as a means of enhancing the competency based training system adopted throughout the Australian.
Further work is also in hand to bring fire safety engineers into the membership.
In Queensland a partnership between the Queensland fire and rescue authority and the I.F.E. group to provide a realistic fire training course for fire safety engineers etc. This will be in a new facility provided for the purpose of fire fighter training. Without exception, they were all very supportive of the Institution and can see the benefit and value of involvement by their staff at all levels. This was encouraging and in my view should be fostered and encouraged through programmes that assist students at every level. The Branch has many actions in hand to do this.