Fighting Fit Program

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) delivers the Government’s environment policies and is responsible for nature conservation, heritage conservation and animal welfare. DENR manages a large part of the State’s public land, which includes national parks, marine parks, botanic gardens and coastline. ForestrySA (FSA) manages South Australia's state-owned plantation resource, consisting of approximately 94,000 ha of primarily radiata pine in the Green Triangle and Ranges regions. ForestrySA also provides community and recreational facilities within these forests and manages an additional 25,000 ha of native forest area for conservation. The SA Country Fire Service (CFS) is a volunteer based, fire and emergency service dedicated to protecting life, property and environmental assets in regional and semi metropolitan South Australia. With approximately 15 000 volunteers and 110 staff, CFS provides a range of fire and emergency services to more than 434 communities across South Australia.

Many DENR, FSA and CFS staff undertake fire suppression operations as part of their duties as a land management or emergency response agency. Bushfire fighting places heavy demands on the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems of fire fighters. Such physical demands results in an increased risk of muscle and joint strain or cardiovascular failure. The aim of the Fighting Fit program is to ensure relevant DENR, FSA and CFS staff are physically fit to undertake their nominated fire role duties. The program consists of a health assessment to determine if staff are able to undertake a task-based test. The task-based test (sub-maximal fitness test) then assesses the relative fitness of the employee for their fire fighting duties.

DENR invites tenders for the preparation and delivery of the “Fighting Fit” program, on behalf of DENR, FSA and CFS. Each agency has the same basic requirements with some minor differences regarding fire role classification, the frequency of testing and elements of the task-based test.