Quick Overview - Nov 2019
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_and_Rescue_New_South_Wales FRNSW provides structural fire protection for urban areas - they also provide most rescue service - they provide all hazmat service in NSW - paid firefighters and paid on call firefighters - 99.99% of stations have 1 city pumper
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_South_Wales_Rural_Fire_Service NSW Rural Fire Service primarily defends rural areas against bushfires - they also have 62 village pumpers (which are beginning to provide more EMS and road rescue service) - more Rural FD units are getting self contained breathing apparatus - all Rural firefighters are volunteers (aka none receive salary or pay) - 99.99% of all Rural stations have 1 Type 1 tanker - approx 50% also have a small tanker or stryker (jeep / suv size) - approx 75% of rural stations have 2 bays - 20% have 3 bays - 5% have 1 bay - approx approx approx
- NSW Ambulance provide ambulance service statewide from 226 locations - and also fly 12 helos from 6 bases and 5 planes from Sydney
- NSW Police covers the entire State - 500 stations - 20,000 staff - armed with pistols - 5 helos and 2 planes from 1 base - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_South_Wales_Police_Force#Arms_and_appointments
- State Emergency Service seemingly is giving up road rescue service to the FDs
- 000 is the number for reporting all emergencies
- NSW State Forestry and National Parks also provide wildfire service
- Parks Service in NSW - zerg90 map - www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1_wkbERcH_ZXmQQkzlPFv_1YZihY36lk&usp=sharing - Jan 4 2024 created - (1,200 firefighters per their website - 1/5/2025) - 99% of the 'national parks" in Australia are protected by the State national parks depts - not the Natl Park Service which only serves 6 real Natl Parks
NSW State Forestry staffs 50 Cat 1 heavy tankers + 2 light helicopters (Bathurst and Turmot) + lookout towers - etc - fire mgmt dispatchers are located at Coffs Harbor and Turmot - see the zerg90 map at - www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1xtHgqb-5rk_t2eTkEOOrWYOseWp5JsU&usp=sharing - Jan 4 2025 created
- local Lifeguard services are serving many areas (maybe)
- WaterNSW does some firefighting in watershed areas apparently - per their website - https://www.waternsw.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/240290/WaterNSW-Catchment-Protection-Work-Program-2025.pdf to handle wildfires in catchment areas - https://www.waternsw.com.au/water-services/catchment-protection/management - lookout towers and crews and helos with crews
---------------
NSW Fire Station Maps by Zerg90
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FKEsFfNwGQo8ST-nQNcwlqaDZw4T903Y&usp=sharing - zerg90 map of all fire stations in the Sydney area - NSW and Rural and misc - created November 2019
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1CMP6RLN1F7GqPcbMhtfJaspDfLtCywOn&usp=sharing - zerg90 map of fire stations - "Australia - NSW Rural - Sydney Area" - Rural Fire Service stations
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1kNDuxyIUDaLmsJgrLv1LfVuLEpufQE8O&usp=sharing - zerg90 map of fire stations in Newcastle area (NE of Sydney) - last updated 3/3/2021
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1DT31CjmLM3XnxO3vqF147NTBbB7YUVm-&usp=sharing - zerg90 map of fire stations - Far North Coast District of RFS - at Queensland border - 3/4/2021 - rural fire stations
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1HD5rl8mV7RRJRzBsIEZklCSfE9WKSFIb&usp=sharing - zerg90 map of fire stations - "Australia - NSW - RFS - Northern Rivers District" - rural fire service stations
www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1c7dahR9DcMJSoepQ8_-u2DXiHype8Ck&usp=sharing - Shoalhaven District - approx 100 miles south of Sydney - map created Jan 3 2025
-------------------------------
portal.spatial.nsw.gov.au/portal/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=44e72c6c7ccf498cb1c822b740c647d3 - this online interactive map shows RFS stations - 2/9/2025
Rural Fire Service - vols versus paid firefighters - Sept 2012
http://youtu.be/0tW3ku8ASLI - Feb 2012 - NSW Police operate some Rescue trucks (for car crashes and bomb disposal)
http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/file_system/attachments/State08/Attachment_20101112_72DE7851.pdf - New South Wales Rural Fire Service - 2009 2010 Annual Report
-------------------------------
November 2019 - Per Radio Reference - both FRNSW and NSW Rural Fire use UHF - both trunked and conventional channels - NSW Rural Fire also has VHF firescene channels - NSW Rural Fire uses 148.5875 for pagers - NSW State Forestry uses 70 Mhz
https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/8967/5.1.3-Communication-Systems.pdf - 2019 - NSW Rural Fire comm policy - all fireground comms are on VHF - each vehicle has 2 UHF radios (mobiles)
----------------------------
Per NSW Forestry website - Nov 2019 - perform fire management on 2 million hectares of State Forests - hire 100 seasonal firefighters annually - fire vehicles are white with green lettering - [ there are 4 wildfire agencies in NSW - apparently they are - FRNSW + NSW Rural Fire + National Parks + NSW State Forestry ] - NSW State Forestry operates over 100 forest fire lookout towers (which serve the entire State - including National Parks and rural lands)
==============================
we posted the following information on Jan 5 2025 - to usafire, bcc: zerg90.zerg, bcc: firerad2, bcc: sonofrcma
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_South_Wales_Rural_Fire_Service - the rural volunteers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_and_Rescue_New_South_Wales - the paid guys
https://www.radioreference.com/db/browse/stid/157 - radio channels
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1FKEsFfNwGQo8ST-nQNcwlqaDZw4T903Y&usp=sharing - zerg90 map of fire station
============================
Sydney is the major city in the state of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia
primary fire service agencies in NSW are - Fire Rescue New South Wales
(FRNSW) + NSW Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) + NSW National Parks + NSW
Forestry Commission
on the map - the black and blue station markers are FRNSW - the red
markers are NSW RFS - the green areas are the national parks - there
are no State Forestry fire stations in the Sydney area
you can see that the black and blue markers mostly cover the City of
Sydney - but they also have stations far out in the suburbs
FRNSW basically has 1 city pumper per station - inner stations are
staffed 24/7 - outer stations are staffed by a combination of career
and paid on call staff
NSW RFS is staffed 95% by volunteers who have pagers - each RFS
station typically has 1 big brush tanker with a 1000 gallon tank - and
a smaller brush truck with a 200 gallon tank - some RFS units do have
SCBA but they are primarily a bush fire organization
You can see that the RFS and FRNSW fire stations are closely
intermixed in many suburban areas
All emergency calls for FRNSW and NWS RFS come in via the 000
telephone number and are dispatched by 2 primary fire dispatch centers
iirc - however - FRNSW uses mobiles on a UHF TRS and portables on UHF
- RFS uses UHF conventional; and both UHF and VHF portables
NSWFR has 7000 staff - RFS has 70,000 volunteers - these are
statewide numbers - NSW Natl Parks has 1,200 wildland firefighters -
NSW Forestry operates 50 brush tankers so maybe their staffing is
around 200 firefighters
note - NSW Natl Parks is not the same as in the USA - NSW Natl Parks
is more like a State Park Service in the USA - in fact -
ParksAustralia - which is the real Natl Park Service (from the USA
perspective) - only covers 6 national parks
note - there is no Australia Forest Service at the federal level -
except for maybe a couple of fire researchers and coordinators - you
wont find any federal forests on the google map - you will just find
'State Forests'
NSW State Forestry uses 70 Mhz - they have 2 forest fire dispatch centers
NSW Natl Parks have TGs on the State TRS (UHF TRS) - they are listed
as DSREC under FRNSW - not sure if that is really accurate
pretty sure that all fire aviation assets are shared - NSW Forestry
has 2 light helos on contract each year - FRNSW has 1 or 2 fire helos
- light and heavy airtankers are also used - unknown what NSW Natl
Parks has - there might be just 1 "dispatch desk" for all of the fire
aviation assets in the state
forest fire lookout towers are operated primarily by NSW Natl Parks -
iirc they staff 100 towers during the highest fire danger days
WaterNSW also has fire crews and lookouts and helos - they cover
several watershed areas in the outer suburbs - apparently mostly the
same areas as the National Parks - so its like an extra layer of fire
protection thrown into the mix
Apparently FRNSW runs all radio comms thru the 2 FireCom centers 24/7
- however the other agencies apparently have multi dispatch centers
that they staff on an as needed basis - NSW RFS usually has 1 of their
Fire Control Centers in each LGA/county
Bottom line - there are 2 primary players here - and they use entirely
different radio systems and entirely different staffing schemes - we
are not sure if they have full boundary drops or not - we saw 1 brush
fire get dispatched recently that got 2 or 3 RFS stations - but the
nearby FRNSW station apparently was not sent
NSW RFS is getting 5,000 new StarLink radios - not sure if they will
be a game changer or not
NSW Natl Parks has to allow RFS to take over any major bush fires -
this is by law apparently
most of the state is covered by heavy vegetation with several
mountainous areas - NWS Natl Parks has primary wildfire responsibility
for those 'deep insertion' areas / roadless areas - lots of prescribed
fire is used and some 'fire roads' have been carved into the mountains