While the exact origins are not known, the Indigo Valley Rural Fire Brigade recorded its rules and constitution in January 1916.

At that time it had three horse-drawn fire carts, which carried 180 gallons of water pumped by a manually operated low-down pump.

Today the brigade has two firefighting trucks, 140 members and 70 active volunteers.

It has been a trail-blazer for women joining bushfire brigades throughout the country too.

The first registered woman in the North East region, Jan Baynes, ran the communications for the Chiltern and District Fire Brigade together with her late husband Eddie on their property nearby the present Indigo Valley fire station.

Mr Baynes was group communications officer from 1966 until 1983 when Mrs Baynes took over the post, which covered Barnawartha, Indigo Valley, Chiltern, Cornishtown, Browns Plains-Gooramadda and Springhurst.

“Ed was a member from the age of 16 and Ed’s grandfather Joseph Baynes was one of the original office bearers for the brigade in 1916,” Mrs Baynes said.

“I joined in 1972 but I mainly got involved to help Ed with the radio; it was 24-7 and even the kids grew up with it.

“The gas tanker incident at Chiltern was one of our biggest call-outs; we didn’t see Ed for 24 hours.”

This weekend’s celebration is timely as the community bands together to support the recovery process since the December bushfire.

Still a brigade member, Mrs Baynes said her children Graeme and Debbie had moved away but were still invested in the area.

“(The service) is just ingrained in me,” she said.

“Graeme came up from Melbourne after the fires in December to help with the blacking out on our property. 

“He rang me from Melbourne when he first heard about it on Facebook; I now get fire alerts on my tablet!”

Indigo Valley Rural Fire Brigade captain Jim Hibberson said the service had a proud history behind it.

“In 1939 they had horrendous fires and all they had was a beater to fight it,” he said.

Indigo Valley Rural Fire Brigade will celebrate on Sunday from 1.30pm to 5pm.