Fire Rescue Victoria firefighters recognised in King’s Birthday Honours

Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) proudly congratulates this year’s recipients of the Australian Fire Service Medal (AFSM) in the 2024 King’s Birthday Honours List.

FRV Senior Station Officer Cory Woodyatt and Acting Station Officer Greg Keighery have been awarded the AFSM in recognition of their outstanding contribution to Australia’s fire services and the Victorian community.

Fire Rescue Commissioner Gavin Freeman AFSM, said the Australian Fire Service Medal is the highest award for a member of an Australian fire service and is awarded to a select number of outstanding individuals each year.

“The Award recognises the commitment and dedication of these distinguished individuals to our community over many decades,” Commissioner Freeman said. 

“Senior Station Officer Woodyatt and Acting Station Officer Keighery have made a unique and invaluable contribution to FRV and our work in keeping Victorian communities safe. 

“On behalf of everyone at FRV, I extend my sincere congratulations to them both on this distinguished award.”

Senior Station Officer Cory Woodyatt

Senior Station Officer Woodyatt began his career with the CFA as a volunteer in 1994 and became a career firefighter in 2000. He is a Senior Station Officer at Ballarat City Fire Station (FS67). 

Senior Station Officer Woodyatt is renowned for his leadership and advocacy for change, particularly in firefighter safety and the design and implementation of operational vehicles and equipment. Senior Station Officer Woodyatt has also played a key role in the development, training and rollout of Heavy Pumpers.

Senior Station Officer Woodyatt has supported the development of assessment guidelines for FRV's leading firefighter promotional training program and is well known for his passion for mentoring our next generation of operational fire service leaders.

Senior Station Officer Woodyatt’s achievements include the National Medal, National Emergency Medal in recognition of his service during the 2009 Black Saturday fires, and CFA's 25-year service medal.

Acting Station Officer Greg Keighery

Acting Station Officer Keighery began his career with the former MFB in 1989 and is currently working in FRV's Building Inspection and Compliance Unit.

Acting Station Officer Keighery’s commitment to firefighters and public fire safety is exceptional – evidenced in his work improving fire safety systems at Melbourne's iconic Flinders Street Station over many years.

Highly regarded for his work in the standardisation of fire safety building inspection reporting processes, Acting Station Officer Keighery led the implementation of Safety Culture (iAuditor). This cloud-based program has effectively streamlined fire safety reports through the development of templates and resulted in significant improvements in FRV's management of building inspection and compliance issues.

Acting Station Officer Keighery’s work to improve reporting processes has also led to the rollout of FRV's electronic patient care record (E-PCR) system to manage emergency medical response incident reports. E-PCRs enable our firefighters to feed medical information from incidents directly to Ambulance Victoria when patients are transported into its care.

Acting Station Officer Keighery has freely given his time and expertise to support the take up of Safety Culture (iAuditor) by other fire services throughout Australia and Victorian local government authorities, including the City of Melbourne and Yarra City Council.