19 Rural Fire Brigade

I was so embarrassed next day when I called the Captain of the Rural Fire Brigade. Had he any suggestions for getting my tractor out of a deep bog? He told me many stories quite similar to mine that were later added to when the whole valley learnt I was an idiot. He knew I was a weekender and had to be back at work in Canberra ASAP so suggested I leave it with him.

The following weekend I found my tractor sitting quietly under a big Manna gum near the bog, covered in dried mud but otherwise OK. The bog, disengaged from its prize, had closed again with only a sandy creek bubbling from the grave as evidence of the adventure. Clearly I had destroyed some spring system or aquifer probably thousands of years old. The only water that could be feeding the boggy lens was 300m uphill where a small creek disappeared into the ground. I apologised to all the watching spirits and declared never to be bad again. I was ignored and the trees turned their backs.

The tractor started first time after a copious injection of ‘Aerostart’ into the engine air intake. Driving away I passed two deep boggy ruts I hadn’t seen before. The RFB report indicated two people had attended the emergency in the 4WD fire truck. They had become bogged whilst manoeuvring into position and had had to winch their vehicle out by attaching the cable to a large tree. The winch was then used to extricate the tractor, anchoring their vehicle to said tree. The gurgling sucks and sighs as the tractor emerged must have been huge.

I became a member of the Creewah RFB and she after a few years became the brigade secretary as well as editor of the newsletter.