by Keith Anderson

Neerim South's Trevor Parker has added a 70-year service medal to his collection of medals and awards from the Country Fire Authority.

He can't recall off hand how many he has received since he joined the Neerim South brigade as a teenager but said there were too many medals to wear at one time.
And there's also life member's badges from his brigade and the CFA. He is the first at Neerim South to reach the 70-year milestone.
Mr Parker said while still at school he did some odd jobs at Frank Paynter's motor garage in Neerim South where he later gained an apprenticeship.
"Frank was captain of the fire brigade at the time and it was an unwritten expectation that his staff would join; all of us at the garage and many others at businesses in the town as well as nearby farm workers, were CFA members".
He said he wasn't eased into a role with the brigade, virtually immediately being made its "apparatus officer."
Not that there was a great deal to look after, some hand held fire fighting instruments and a 1939 ex-army truck with a water tank on the back.
It was not long before Mr Parker moved up the hierarchy ladder at the Neerim South station, taking on the secretary's position from 1954 to 1956 and being appointed captain in 1969, a position he held for 31 years.
There was plenty of action on the firefighting front for the volunteer brigade, not just lightning strikes and bush fires in the area such as the February 1983 Ash Wednesday fires that ravaged Victoria, burned through more than 210,000 hectares and resulted in 75 deaths.
During that emergency the Neerim members formed a strike team operating north of Noojee.
But the major fires that are fixed strongest in Mr Parker's mind were in Neerim South and close by.
Over a number of years the Catholic and Presbyterian churches, King's Arms Hotel and football clubrooms, all at Neerim South, and the Neerim East and Neerim Junction public halls all burned to the ground.
They were all old weatherboard buildings and the district communities rallied around to have new, more modern structures built, he recalled.
During the three-plus decades of Mr Parker's captaincy of the brigade communications were very basic by today's standards.
His house was home to a radio system and dedicated fire alert telephone on which fires could be reported - a wake-up signal for all in the Parker household.
Mr Parker is extremely proud of the brigade's continuing involvement in the community and fundraising for local projects and activities that created a great sense of companionship between members, their families and residents.
He listed the annual "Santa run", a fundraising "bed push" from Neerim South to Noojee in partnership with the local Apex club that ran for many years, involvement with "Clean Up Australia Day," hosing down of the tennis courts at Neerim South as a "training exercise" and regular cleaning up of the cemetery as a few of the activities undertaken.
Without saying so in many words Mr Parker is also proud that the names of his two sons, Gavin and Kelvin, are alongside his on the Neerim South fire brigade's honour board and a son-in-law Bob Raymount is now brigade secretary.
With an 88th birthday only a matter of weeks away Mr Parker's life has truly been Neerim South.
He was born in an old hospital in the town, schooled there, started work there before a stint working in Warragul, established Trevor Parker Motors at Neerim South in 1969 and has lived his entire life and raised a family there.