Shakira Westdorp

Pictured: Shakira Westdorp

A tomboy growing up, taking on the neighbourhood boys at their own games, Shakira Westdorp, 25, is Queensland’s first Indigenous female firefighter, based at Surfers Paradise.

Q. What was your day job before training to be a firefighter?

I was a professional life guard for seven years on the Gold Coast.

Q. From water to fire, that’s quite a change…

A lot of skills apply in both. As a life guard, I learnt risk management, first aid, how to manage an emergency situation and how to deal with the public. Both jobs lend themselves to an adrenalin rush too.

Q. Seems you get the adrenalin going with sport too.

Sure, growing up on the northern New South Wales’ beaches, there were lots of boys in the neighbourhood and if I wanted to be included, I had to join in — and I always tried to outdo them. I won an Australian surf lifesaving title in 2002 then concentrated on surfing and paddle boarding: won the women’s 2007 Hennessey’s International Paddleboard race in Hawaii and the Quiksilver Edition Molokai to Oahu Paddleboard race that year too.

Q. What did you have to do to become a firie?

After the initial application, there were a lot of assessments: health checks, fitness, psychological and aptitude testing. Then there was an interview. As a Fire Recruit, I joined a group who were paid to train full-time for four months at Whyte Island. There were two other women in my group.

Whyte Island is an amazing place. Every situation that we may face on the job was thrown at us in training in life-like simulations. We did everything from fire-fighting to road crash retrievals, hazardous material spills, and rescues in rapid water, or underground, or from cliffs.

Being tiny, I was made for getting in and out of tight spaces.

Q. There are only 44 full-time women firefighters in Queensland compared to 2000 male firies — and you’re the first Aboriginal woman to go for it. What’s your advice to pursuing this career?

Look at the application process as baby steps, and it’ll be sweet.