NSW RFS Lake George Remote Area Fire Team

11/10/2026

10/10/2026

Operate in Remote Environment - Assessment

22 RFS Members from around NSW are hitting the hill behind Queanbeyan for the ORE assessment.

Time to demonstrate the skills required and in the middle of thousands of Bogong Moths. It is quite the backdrop.

28/09/2026

It’s assessment time!

On 10th October around 25 participants from around NSW will again head to Queanbeyan for assessment on the Operate In Remote Environments Course.

Time to sharpen the pencils, find those grids, track them bearings and motor across the hills.

Hopefully the participants bring the weather with them…

26/09/2026

Some of our members over achieve when tasked to do things… even when providing logistics for our exercise. Yes, that’s a bespoke built kitchen sink with running water and plumbing. Built this week.

26/09/2026

LG RAFT is in the field.

Our remote area exercise is underway in Namadgi National Park, with Mount Clear Campground established as base camp. Thirty-one participants and organisers are on the ground from Lake George RAFT, other Southern Area NSW RFS RAFT teams, ACT RFS RAFT, ACT Parks, and the Lake George Communications Brigade.

The exercise is testing remote area capability: hiking in to protect high country huts, and integrating drones into remote operations. This morning the crews sat through presentations on both hut protection and drone use. Eight ground teams are now out conducting field tasks.

As a wider exercise it is also a deployment test. LG RAFT has picked up, moved, and stood up a remote operation, control, communications, safety and logistics, away from home ground and in zero mobile phone coverage.

The Lake George Communications Brigade was asked to attend, assess the site, and rapidly establish full communications support in a remote setting. They have taken up the challenge. The aim is coverage and connectivity across a wide area, under time pressure, the same way it would be required on a real incident. Assessment of terrain complete, radio repeaters being positioned… it’s all a go.

Training like this is how remote teams stay ready for operations in remote country they actually work in. LG RAFT likes to go the whole hog and bring the whole organisation, organically, into the field for wherever or if ever required.

Thanks to every member and supporting agency on the ground today.

20/09/2026

Operate in Remote Environments (ORE) Course

What a cracking two days it has been weather wise in Queanbeyan. Cloudless sky’s, warm temps, green grass, wild flowers blooming… honestly, you could not have had better weather to get out bush and be a participant, or trainer, on the ORE course.

23 RFS participant’s from around NSW and 12 trainers bashed around the hills behind Queanbeyan this weekend as part of the ORE course. By map, by compass, by contouring, hand railing and into the night. The participants learned and tested new skills.

A critical difference that makes this course work and so successful is the very large volume of trainers to participants. So a special thank you to the 12 trainers, many of who also traveled many hours and gave up a weekend to just share their knowledge.

08/09/2026

Glenn Nicolson from Lake George RAFT and Carwoola RFB is now on Day 27 of his deployment to the United States, last known to be working on the McConnell Fire in Nevada which is a desert. It has been very dusty and windy.

This is Glenn’s 4th fire on this deployment, previously spending a few days in Reno on property protection on a very large fire where 40,000 people were served with evacuation orders and Interstate 80 closed.

Glenn was lucky enough to see a Fire Train which was used to protect a ranch where he was located. The Yanks don’t do things by halves; why use a truck if you can use a train?

He has had 2 Birthdays since being deployed, an Australian birthday and a USA birthday. Happy Birthday Glenn.

04/09/2026

Queanbeyan will be hosting the last of three Operate in Remote Environment (ORE) courses for the NSW RFS this year. Residents along Captains Flat road can expect a heavy RFS vehicle presence over the weekend of the 19th and 20th of September. Around 45 RFS trainees and instructors will be operating within the Cuumbuen Nature Reserve for a 48h period, including night operations. Torch lights may be seen well into the night on the 19th as trainees conduct night navigation exercises across the hills.

01/09/2026

Lake George RAFT had a cracking weekend at SES NavShield in Belanglo State Forest.

It was great to be out there, and even more so to sit back and watch how tightly the event was run. Events like this don’t just happen. The planning, logistics and hours that go into making NavShield work are enormous, and it showed.

We won’t pretend the setting didn’t sit with us. Belanglo carries a tragic history, and none of us ever expected to choose to walk or camp there. What surprised us was the forest itself.

State forests really are public places, well maintained and more accessible than many people realise. One course took us from tall, nearly mature pines with a damp, green understorey out onto dry, exposed cliff lines, 100-metre drops and waterfalls. Then back through dense bush into more open forest, with light coming through and a mix of mid and low understorey.

A place with a horrific past, and still some of the most striking and unknown views we’ve seen. That contrast is hard to shake.

Thanks to NSW SES, Bush Search and Rescue and everyone who put the weekend together. Great training, great people, and a reminder that even the hardest country can still stop you in your tracks if you allow yourself to take a breath to take in the scenery.