THE Wooroloo Volunteer Bush Fire Brigade (WVBFB) is turning 85 years old on November 14 and welcomes the community to join and celebrate the milestone at Wooroloo fire station.

The event is set to run from 7pm to 10pm on November 14 with giant games, lolly bags, a colouring station for children along with food trucks and tunes from The Mucky Duck Bush Band.

According to the Lost Mundaring and Surroundings history museum, WVBFB was established in 1941 as the Shire of Mundaring’s first volunteer bushfire brigade.

The brigade has responded to incidents in the hills and throughout the state, including the 1997 Wooroloo fire, the 2011 Roleystone fire, 2014 Parkerville fire and most recently the 2021 Wooroloo bushfires.

Since the 2021 Wooroloo bushfires the brigade has built community engagement through local community events.

These include events specialising in fire preparedness and engaging with primary schools in the area to teach the importance of bushfire and fire safety awareness.

The Christmas Eve Santa Lolly Run is also a long-running tradition of the brigade.

Since its formation, the brigade had extended the original small fire shed into the station it is now, with efforts from community and brigade members to fundraise and build extensions onto the building.

In 2020, Lesley Lynam became the brigade’s first ever female brigade captain.

In 2026 Katina Sweeney took over captaincy becoming the second female captain in the brigade’s history.

Ms Sweeney said being the second female captain in the brigade’s history made her proud.

“Being able to inspire young girls growing up and showing that they can do these things as well, I think is really great,” she said.

“Lesley was my previous captain, and she became captain without looking to become captain and she needed to learn the ropes and the rest the hard way.

“With her support, I was able to ease into the role and not have the stress behind it like she did.

“For me, it demonstrated the meaning of being the best leader I can be, helping others move up in their roles as well and being somebody that the community comes to.”

WVBFB are the oldest and smallest brigade in the Shire of Mundaring with nine active members and two auxiliary members who undertake behind-the-scenes roles.

Ms Sweeney said the close-knit nature of a smaller brigade meant it felt more like a family.

“It’s not just about being out there fighting fires, and we do things like this for the community,” she said.

“Being able to connect through our lolly run or Anzac Day services has been really beneficial.

“We do have a community with quite a lot of older people and travelling might be a bit hard for them.

“We’re in our third year now of Anzac services and having a service where they can just walk down to the hall has been really beneficial.”

Despite the ravages of the Wooroloo fires, the brigade has been able to find a silver lining in the connections that have strengthened in the community.

“The silver lining is we put ourselves out there and got involved in the community a lot more,” Ms Sweeney said.

“We’re the smallest brigade in the shire with nine active members and two auxillary members, so we’re hoping the event could also be a chance to encourage more people to join up.

“We want the brigade to feel like something the community can take part in, join and feel they belong.”