Fires, floods, locusts, pest management, prescribed burning and various recovery programs have been a big part of the Mallee District’s Senior Fire and Land Operations Officer Suzie Deason’s career.
But the catastrophic Black Saturday in Bracewell St, Bendigo, in 2009 had a big impact on Suzie. A combination of terrible fire conditions off the back of severe drought was a disastrous mix. Suzie and the team landed in the chaos of Bendigo’s suburbs on fire, within 1 kilometre of the CBD. The experience “gave me an appreciation of the precious value of life and the incredible and uncontrollable power of fire when the conditions are extreme”.
After 21 years with Parks Victoria, Suzie joined DEECA when the Parks Victoria Fire and Emergency team moved into DEECA.
Suzie’s career started as a Project Firefighter at Inglewood in 2002. When not fighting fires, she worked with the Gorse Taskforce to control Gorse on Crown land blocks.
Her first fire season was during the 2003 Victorian Alpine fires. “It was an amazing introduction to bushfire fighting, with months away on taskforce in remote areas.” Suzie said.
Suzie also attended the Great Divide fires in 2006, a taskforce to Kangaroo Island, floods in 2010 in Northern Victoria and flood and recovery in the Grampians.
One of Suzie’s most recent career highlights was the opportunity to act as Murray Goldfields District Manager in a challenging time of change.
Suzie is an accredited Operations Officer, Trainer and Assessor, and a District Duty Officer (DDO) in the Murray Goldfields. “The DDO role is a coordination role for emergency that is challenging but rewarding. It involves coordination and communication with crews, management, the community and other organisations for the preparedness and response to emergency incidents. I enjoy being able to use my operational experience to support crews on the ground to do what they do best - put the fire out!”
Working in emergency management in the Loddon Mallee and her Senior Fire and Land Operations Officer role in the Mallee Fire District means she gets to work with so many talented and passionate staff who are good at what they do.
“Recruitment, training and assessment is a very rewarding part of my role, and I enjoy supporting people to reach their potential - this is also the most challenging part! My involvement in the training of General Firefighters, Crew Leader and Operations Officer is a satisfying part of the job and I get to connect with people from all over the state.”
Mum of Henry,8, and Maisie, 6, thinks that: “balance is a mythical word that I haven’t managed yet. There are lots of juggling and calendars in my house to make sure we are all on the same page. Flexibility is the key and the amazing support from my family, my team and my manager are important.
"Family comes first and sometimes things have to change or be delayed because of this.”
