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Ray White Canberra’s Cameron Crombie wears many hats - real estate agent, para-athlete and new father but most recently his work as a volunteer has been his focus.
Not only does Mr Crombie spend his days helping Australians buy or sell houses, he is also a rural firefighter.
Coming off the World Athletics Championships, an elbow surgery and the birth of his daughter, Mr Crombie is once again in the thick of it helping to reduce the devastating impacts of this summer’s unprecedented bushfire season.
“Volunteering is a fantastic way to spend a few hours every week and I think it’s really important because we’re so heavily reliant here in Canberra on a rural fire service since we are surrounded by bush,” Mr Crombie said.
“It can’t be done by just a purely paid organisation and from a personal level it puts you in contact with so many people from so many different backgrounds.
“They have skills that you can’t help but absorb and some really good qualities from these people who are all there for the right reasons and I think that in itself is enough to keep me coming back.”
Mr Crombie began volunteering about seven years ago after realising that his office job was not as rewarding as he had hoped.
“I was looking for something different, I was in a job at the time - this was before I joined real estate - where I wasn’t as mentally fulfilled as I could be,” he said.
“Working in an office, staring at a computer all day can get pretty monotonous so I decided to volunteer as it was something a bit different and I knew nothing about the fire brigade or what was involved.
“There was a brigade near my house so I signed up, turned up to training and just went through the basic firefighting course and I’m still loving it.”
While Mr Crombie loves that volunteering means he gets to jump out of helicopters, drive fire trucks and basically do the things he dreamed of as a child, he said sometimes it can take a toll.
“I think everyone deals with the emotions in their own way and it is quite sobering to go to this fire and spend 12 or 14 hours fighting it then drive all the way back to Canberra through an area that’s burnt out,” Mr Crombie said.
“But if our work did slow it down for an extra day or two then that might have given someone the chance to get out or to prepare their property better.
“I think there is a positive to it and I think that the hard work everyone's putting in is getting appreciated and it’s definitely not going unnoticed which makes it a lot easier to cope with the aftermath.”
This season’s bushfires have taken lives, decimated wildlife populations and tested many Australian but Mr Crombie said he is not ready to give up volunteering anytime soon.
“I think I’ll be continuing it for sometime yet, I’ve got a seven week old baby girl so no doubt my priorities and everything have changed and will change over time but I think volunteering for me and just mixing with such a really good group of people on a regular basis is just a really good outlet for everything else that I do,” he said.
“I think I’ll keep on doing it for as long as I possibly can and the beauty of it is they’re happy for you to be there for as long as you can give them and when you’re not available, you’re not available.”
