A Reflection on Five Years in the Role of CEO
- CEO
- Jul 1
- 4 min read
It is that time of year again when we reflect on another successful year for the Museum of Fire’s online blog, which I’m incredibly pleased to announce has been read online by 28,000 people in the last twelve months alone!
This year, the timing is somewhat ironic as I pay tribute to five years of the blog and five years in the role of CEO, because, at least for an extended period of time, this will be my last blog CEO blog as I embark on my next great adventure and begin maternity leave.
The Museum’s first ever blog was published on 14 July 2020, and it clearly outlined our intended hopes for the blog. I’m very pleased to say that five years later we are still achieving the goals of sharing historical stories and insights into Museum operations through our weekly blog publication. The reach of these blogs is always impressive, and we still continue to produce a popular printed blog once a month that is made available free to the public in the Museum shop.
Since becoming CEO, I’ve been delighted to welcome new audiences to the Museum as we strove to break down established stereotypes and ensure everyone from the community felt welcome within the organisation. This has developed into our highest levels of visitation ever experienced by the Museum and translated into a more diverse customer base which is more reflective of society as a whole. We have aimed to show that when it comes to our exhibitions and our organisation there isn’t a “one-size fits all” approach and I truly believe that due to our willingness to embrace societal change and adapt with the times that we have been able to achieve this level of diversity and visitation.
Due to my background as the Museum’s Heritage Officer before becoming CEO, the Museum’s role in sharing the stories behind local brigades within Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) remains close to my heart. Since becoming CEO I have been privileged to personally attend 16 FRNSW station events (at the time of writing I am hoping to attend one additional final centenary event assuming bub doesn’t arrive early!) and I’ve overseen the production of an additional 12 historical works for similar events. From that first station opening I attended as CEO, back in August 2020 during pandemic times in Parkes I continue to enjoy meeting the individuals associated with all of the brigades across NSW and I will always be thankful that I’ve been able to see so much of our great state (even when major weather incidents left me stranded in various remote parts of the country)!
In the last five years we’ve launched new initiatives and events such as our annual participation in the History Council’s History Week, our ever-popular children’s art competition and our regular school holiday family day events. We’ve attended the Easter Show with FRNSW five times, as well as many other local festivals such as the Hawkesbury Show and we’ve firmly established the Museum as a key contributor to FRNSW’s annual Open Day activities.
We’ve faced floods that threatened the Museum and forced us to close our doors more times than I’d like to remember and we were plunged back into lockdown due to the pandemic, but we continued to use that time to update our displays, which wasn’t easy given we had no reliable income to support the Museum’s projects due to the closure.
Some other highlights from the last five years include when we became a property on the Penrith Monopoly board that was launched back in 2021, and we were also able to remove the “fire engine on the pole” from outside the Museum on Castlereagh Road so it could receive some much-needed restoration work. The Museum shop has also received several facelifts over the last five years thanks to our ingenuity and hard work of the Museum volunteers who, despite not always seeing the end vision, went along with my wild ideas (the same stands for the many updates our volunteers helped create around the museum displays!)
When reflecting on diversifying the Museum this is most evident with the great temporary exhibitions we’ve hosted over the last five years. We’ve showcased two exhibitions from the National Museum of Australia, one curated by National Geographic. We also housed Orange Regional Museum’s first touring exhibition, and we currently have the first ever exhibition dedicated to the story of women within FRNSW on display at the Museum.
It's been an amazing five years and I hope we can continue the momentum into the next five years!
Keep an eye out next week when we share the most popular blogs and stories of the last twelve month!
- Blog by Museum of Fire CEO Belinda McMartin
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