Retiring fireman keeps his spark

Uncle Norm Clarke has met government ministers, state premiers and advised the Queensland Fire Commissioner. It’s a far cry from the boy who grew up on dirt floors in Mitchell.

Station Officer Norm Clarke, Australian Fire Service Medal – Queensland’s first full-time Indigenous firefighter – has hung up his uniform for the last time.

But he’s keen as mustard to have more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people follow in his footsteps. He promises those that do will be in for the adventure of their lives.

“Some of the new, younger Aboriginal blokes, when they get into the organisation, I say to them — any of the disasters that happen in the outside world, I can handle them. It’s through the training and what the fire service has trained me to do,” he said.

“When you go into house fires and there’s lots of smoke, or when you’ve got to climb off the tower or buildings and go down escarpments, the training and the equipment we use is the thing that helped me a lot. You say, well, I’ve got the best equipment in the world; I’ve been trained by the best in the world; just do it.

“I’m a bit biased, I suppose, but it is the best job in the world being a fireman.”

For 35 years, Norm was a fixture in the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service and its predecessors. He spent 25 years on the trucks before becoming the service’s Indigenous liaison officer and encouraging other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to follow in his footsteps.

Last year, he had the satisfaction of seeing the service welcome Shakira Westdorp, its first Indigenous female firefighter.

Now, Norm’s at the happy stage of debating whether to learn lawn bowls, a sport enjoyed by his wife, Betty. And that’s quite fitting, because it was sport that drew him into the world of firefighting.

Norm was lured from his Mitchell home to Brisbane to play for Fortitude Valley Rugby League Football Club, where he participated in three A-grade premierships.

One club supporter was a senior officer in the Metropolitan Fire Brigade and he persuaded Norm to apply for the brigade.

“It was a typical male, Anglo-Saxon dominated (organisation),” he said. “So, for a person like myself, as an Aboriginal, to come from the outside into this organisation – it was very hard.”

Norm spent 25 years on fire trucks and loved every minute. “It’s something about the comradeship,” he said. “The blokes you work with are more like family down through the years. Working on the trucks was a personal achievement for me.”

Then the brigade, by now the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service, offered Norm another challenge – becoming its Aboriginal liaison officer.

“They asked would I put together a program for cultural awareness for the service to have, and for a recruitment program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to come in,” he said. “Becoming the Aboriginal liaison officer allowed me … to become more involved in community safety in Indigenous communities across the state.”

These days, every new cadre of recruits goes through cultural awareness training that was devised by Norm.

“I’d still like to see more young Aboriginal women have a shot at it,” he said. “They would be fantastic role models for a lot of other young Aboriginal girls. It is a great job.

“The job has been fantastic. Some of the things that I’ve done and achieved and been in – not only fires but in the floods and the rescues I’ve been involved in – have been amazing, absolutely amazing.”

Norm retired in September 2011, 35 years to the day that he joined.

He continues to issue learner licences to Indigenous people around the state and is involved in Murri Court at Cleveland, and the Children’s Murri Court in Brisbane. “I’ll become a liaison or something, if I can, for the prison system,” he said. “If I get some free time, my wife (Betty) plays bowls at Cleveland so, I think that’s where I might turn my next sporting interest to.”