Scott Drady has spent a lifetime serving his community.
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The former police officer has also been a firefighter for about 24 years, including in Dubbo since 2006.
He knows first-hand how challenging life in the emergency services can be, and that’s exactly why he keeps coming back to the Firefighter Championship, kicking off at Dubbo’s Ollie Robbins Oval on Thursday.
“It’s just a great, family-oriented, team-building exercise and I think that’s what’s needed in these sort of scenarios,” Scott said.
“Especially in … Fire and Rescue, we come across a lot of bad stuff. So unwinding, for want of a better term, is good and doing this certainly gives us a bit of a break from the realities of what happens in life.”
The Dubbo brigade is staging this year’s championship and Scott said he would be relieved once competition got underway.
“We haven’t had a lot of training … so we’re testing our skills,” Scott said. “But … we know what we’re doing. We’ve got our tasks so I think we should be right. We’ll give it a good crack anyway!”
There are 22 teams registered for the three-day event – slightly down on previous years, with the drought thought to have had an impact. But an estimated 500 visiting competitors, officials and supporters are still set to deliver a boost for Dubbo.
He said the rescue event – which will take place throughout Friday – and the suction event – Saturday – are the team’s strongest, and backed “speedster” Brett Smyth to crack the seven-second barrier in the ladder climb.
“The Dubbo team finishes consistently in the top ten of every championship it competes in, be it regional, state or Australasian.”
He urged people to attend Friday’s family fun night from 5pm, which includes a torchlight parade from Victoria Park back to Ollie Robbins Oval from 8pm and a fireworks display from 8.30pm.
