Canberrans are being asked to turn out to support a centenary-year parade of emergency services personnel being held after-dark in peak-hour traffic in one of the national capital's busiest Friday night locations, Manuka.
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Instead of a day-time parade, the ACT emergency services have opted for a traditional torchlight parade that will see rolling street closures around Manuka as up to 350 staff and at least 18 vehicles, including antique appliances, parade through the inner-south hot spot on Friday.
It will start at 5.45pm at the Griffith Oval and move down Captain Cook Crescent in Griffith, along Franklin and Furneaux streets, Manuka Circle and on to Canberra Avenue. It will finish at the Canberra Fire Museum on the corner of Empire Circuit and Fitzroy Street in Forrest for a barbecue.
The parade is to celebrate the 100th anniversaries of ACT Fire and Rescue and the national capital.
ACT Policing will be making rolling closures of streets as the parade progresses. ACT Fire and Rescue chief officer Paul Swain said some of the families of staff would be walking with them and he hoped other Canberrans would do the same.
Mr Swain said the event harked back to traditional parades held by
candlelight in England early last century to acknowledge the emergency services. The parade was originally held at dusk but had been pushed back to account for traffic.
Mr Swain acknowledged the parade was being held at a busy time but asked Canberrans to support what was a ''one-in-100-year event''. ''We block streets on an almost daily basis for emergencies so the fact we are marching and blocking streets had some synergy with what we do,'' he said, adding the disruption would be kept to a minimum.
Mr Swain said some on-duty firefighters would be participating but would be walking at the end of the parade in case they needed to peel off to attend an emergency. He said the ACT would not be left under-resourced by the parade.
The inner-south was where the modern fire and rescue service in Canberra began, with the first fire stations opened in Kingston and later Forrest. The first fire chief, Percy Douglas, was appointed in 1913, seconded from Melbourne.
The parade will include rural and urban firefighters, police, ambulance officers, State Emergency Service staff and Territory and Municipal Services officers. Pipe bands from the ACT and Queanbeyan will accompany the parade.
Fire and Rescue NSW officers from Queanbeyan will also march. Retired staff will be part of the parade, some walking, others ferried in vehicles.
ACT Fire and Rescue received $23,000 from the Centenary of Canberra fund for the parade, an historical display at the Canberra Fire Museum in Forrest on Saturday and a centenary ball.
Mr Swain said he believed it was the first time a torchlight parade had been held in Canberra for emergency services. Vehicles would have their flashing lights on and staff would be in their ''turn-out'' gear.
