Mudgee Local Danny Busch has been awarded a prestigious Churchill Fellowship, which will enable him to travel overseas in 2020 to research career pathways for Indigenous peoples into rural fire service agencies.
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The Churchill Fellowship provides an opportunity for talented Australian citizens to travel to investigate inspiring practices that will benefit Australian communities.
And are delivered by the Churchill Trust in the memory of Sir Winston Churchill, providing an opportunity for Australians to conduct research in their chosen field and innovate on their return to Australia.
Mr Busch, who is a long-serving member of the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS), has spent the last two years working in Indigenous communities in Far West NSW developing a "ground up" recruitment framework.
This resulted in the establishment of all Indigenous Fire Mitigation crews based out of Bourke and Brewarrina.
And along fellow RFS officer, Simon Curry from Young, Mr Busch worked extensively with Indigenous elders and community leaders in developing the framework.
Now he wants to innovate even further through the Churchill Fellowship by travelling overseas and researching successful Indigenous rural fire agency recruitment programmes - specifically in the North America and South Africa.
He will also spend a short time in the UK, reviewing highly successful employment programmes in disadvantaged communities in relation to common strategies.
Whilst overseas Mr Busch will spend time with the Bureau Indian Affairs - US Department of Interior in Washington DC, Native American wildfire teams in Florida, meet with United Nations permanent forum on Indigenous issues in New York and Department of Environmental Affairs in South Africa.
"Creating a pathway for Indigenous peoples into rural fire agencies is a good thing, it builds community connection and resilience, it's on country and its capacity building, particularly in the more remote areas," he said.
Building on his current experiences in working with Indigenous communities and fire recruitment programmes and the Churchill Fellowship research programme overseas, Mr Busch plans on innovating even further on his return through a range of ongoing initiatives in Australia.
"This is a huge honour and would like to particularly thank the Lord Mayor's Bushfire Appeal for sponsoring my Churchill Fellowship," he said.
This year 115 Churchill Fellowships have been awarded to people from cities and towns across Australia including; 24 from NSW; 22 from Victoria; 20 from Queensland; 14 from Western Australia; eight from the ACT; 10 from South Australia; 10 from Tasmania; and seven from the Nothern Territory.
