Port Macquarie State Championship 2006

The Firefighter Championships began as 'Demonstrations' or 'Demos', where fire brigades exhibited their skills to the local community. Events in the Demos were based on real situations firefighters faced daily and were designed to highlight their talent and expertise, whilst having the extra benefit of being a form of training.

This week, our Championship historian and guest blogger John Hand takes us to 2006, when Port Macquarie hosted a State Championship that would end in the closest Alfred Webb Cup finish in the trophy's history.

Thirty NSW Fire Brigades (NSWFB, today Fire and Rescue NSW) teams lined up for the 2006 State Championship, joined by visiting sides from Victoria, Queensland, New Zealand and the NSW Rural Fire Service. Saturday night, 21 October, set the tone for the week, with the traditional torchlight procession and fireworks display lighting up the ocean backdrop in spectacular fashion.

Torchlight Procession during the Port Macquarie State Championships, 21 October 2006 [Photo courtesy of Fire and Rescue NSW]

Monday's Individual Events

Competition proper got underway on Monday morning with the Ladder Event, where Mark Waters of Morisset proved the quickest, ahead of Ray Dresser (Kelso), Mark Hooper (Echuca), 2004 winner Craig Mayled (Coffs Harbour) and Luke Arnold (Echuca) to round out the top five.

The Hose & Hydrant 1 Competitor Event was run for the final time at Port Macquarie, and it produced one of the day's warmest stories. Morisset's Troy Kempnich took the win ahead of John Dun (Nowra), Don O'Bree (Port Macquarie), 2002 winner Chris Ison (Nowra) and Brad Kane (Muswellbrook) — a fitting victory for Troy, whose father had won the very same event back in 1984, representing Port Macquarie. Plans are in place for an exhibition run at Coffs Harbour in October 2026, bringing Troy together with John Dun, three-time winner Graham Gibbons (Bathurst and Kelso) and Tony Noble (Dorrigo), a regular top finisher in the event.

The End of the Cart and Reel Events

Scarborough, Coffs Harbour and Glen Innes took the honours in the Urban Pumper & Ladder, the first team event of the Championship. Nowra — Alfred Webb Cup winners in 2002 — followed by Kelso and Muswellbrook, were the best in Hose Reel & Ladder, which proved to be the last time a Hose Reel event was run at Championships; the Hose Cart events had already had their final outing in 2000. Between them, the cart and reel events had been part of the competition since its earliest days as the Demonstrations, more than a century of history coming to a close at Port Macquarie.

The last Championship that ran the Hose Reel & Ladder event, October 2006 [Photo courtesy of Fire and Rescue NSW]

A trial event, Booster Valve & Ladder, was won by South Grafton ahead of Dorrigo and Kelso, while Casino, Kelso and South Grafton were the best in the Urban Pumper & BA Event. It was a changing of the guard in more ways than one: as Storz fittings replaced the threaded couplings that had been standard since competition began in the 1880s, only three events would survive through to the following State Championship, hosted by Delroy at Dubbo.

Glen Innes, Kelso and Casino picked up wins in the remaining events, with Scarborough, Trangie, Balgownie and Dorrigo all banking valuable points toward the Alfred Webb Cup aggregate. Among the visiting sides, Wondai (Qld) finished best, ahead of Echuca (Vic) and Kaitangata (NZ).

Port Macquarie State Championships, October 2006 [Photo courtesy of Fire and Rescue NSW]

Casino by a Single Point

When the aggregate points were tallied, Casino claimed the Alfred Webb Cup by the narrowest margin in the trophy's history — 84 points to Kelso's 83, with Nowra (57), South Grafton (42) and Scarborough (40) rounding out the top five.

A State title win often follows a string of top-five finishes at earlier Championships, but Casino's team of Col Bennett, Rohan Coe, Ben Jenkins, Dean Roese and Ben Summers proved that history wrong. Casino has kept that competitive tradition alive ever since, hosting the Region North title last October and returning to compete again in 2026.

-Story by Championship Historian, John Hand