(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)
As Victoria's immediate bushfire threat subsides, crews continue monitoring bushland in the state's many fire hot-spots.
One group leading the way is an all-Indigenous brigade in the state's far east which the Country Fire Authority describes as a firefighting and cross-cultural trailblazer.
Luke Waters reports.
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A days-old burn-off smoulders a few kilometres from the Lake Tyers community and the firefighters get to work.
Three of the unit's four volunteers rake over the smouldering soil as the brigade's newest member, Julian "Tiny" Edwards, gets a lesson in hose technique from Charmaine Sellings, a founding member of the 23 year old unit, and Tiny is soon on his way.
Temperatures approach 40 degrees and Tiny anxiously awaits his first strike team deployment.
"Yeah it is nervous, because it's the first time going to it. It's nervous because you don't know what's going to happen."
A humble shed in the centre of the Lake Tyers community houses the unit which - until Tiny joined - was all women.
And, according to founding member Charmaine Sellings, until Tiny joined it also sported a distinctive nickname.
"The name stuck so since then that's what we were called: the banana women."
She says the unit is charged with protecting the community of around 400 people and it's important work, taken extremely seriously.
"It makes me feel proud that I can go out and do this stuff."
Recently the unit expanded its role beyond the protection of assets and buildings when more than 170 Aboriginal artefacts were retrieved from the edge of the mission.
It's now considered culturally significant and, according to Charmaine Sellings, the Lake Tyers Brigade is determined to preserve the precinct.
"It means a lot to the elders that we look after the areas because it's not only here, it's right around the lake. We have a lot of cultural sites that haven't been recorded yet."
CFA spokeswoman Deborah Salvagno says the Lake Tyers Brigade is considered a trail-blazer for its expanding engagement with Indigenous communities.
"They are the only Aboriginal brigade within CFA so they are a prototype and offer a mentoring role for others around the state."
Recruiting new volunteers can be challenging, but third-generation Lake Tyers resident Charmaine Sellings says it's also next on her agenda.
"I feel like a leader. I feel like I can teach the younger generation how to protect their sites and what to look for. It'll keep them out of trouble. It'll teach them to respect their elders, it'll teach them to look after the cultural sites, it'll teach them the history."
