New sheds for the Country Fire Service Brigades at Mount Burr and Coonawarra were officially opened on Sunday.

The speeches and ribbon-cutting ceremonies had long been held over due to COVID issues.

As well as the shed festivities, up to 80 long-serving volunteer members of the Wattle Range CFS Group received National Medals and like awards.

Among the dignitaries in attendance were Primary Industries Minister Clare Scriven, Member for MacKillop Nick McBride, CFS chief officer Brett Loughlin, CFS regional commander Jason Drewitt, Wattle Range Mayor Des Noll and Wattle Range CFS group officer Fred Stent.

A barbecue lunch was provided at Mount Burr by the local football club while the master of ceremonies at the Mount Burr ceremony was local volunteer firefighter and former Wattle Range Mayor Peter Gandolfi.

Most of the award recipients at the Mount Burr ceremony came from this town’s CFS brigade along with Millicent and Glencoe.

A notable exception was Justin Cook who is the brigade caption with the OneFortyOne forestry enterprise.

The following presentations were made at Mount Burr:

National Emergency Services Medal: Shelby Auld, Brett Dennert, Rebecca Kober, Trevor Cowin, Chris Mathias, Kalli Quinlan, Phil Richards, Dale Brant, Peter Gandolfi, Trevor Schultz and Justin Cook.

National Medal: Dale Brant (25 years of service), Trevor Schultz (25), Tim Blow (15), Anthony Noble (15) and Glen Treloar (15).

South Australian CFS Medal: Mike Kemp (50 years of service), Peter Fourier (40), Gordon Sargeant (40), John DeWit (30), Kanute Larsen (20) and Elaine Wilson-Bennett, Trav Baker, Amber Willoughby, Gavin Golding, Paul Smyth, Tim Blow, Tony Gardiner and Glenn Treloar.

Life membership of the CFS was presented to John Critchley, Robert Thompson and Brett Dennert.