News from nswrfs

Easter School Holidays and your Library's Opening Hours

The NSW RFS library wishes everyone a very happy Easter and enjoyable school holidays.

The library will be closed during the following period as the librarian will be on holidays.

Thursday 17th April until Sunday 27th April 2025

The NSW RFS library will reopen on Monday, 28th April 2025.

Don't forget that our ebooks, online magazines and audiobooks are available all year round.

Image: Your librarian sporting her tin foil Easter Bonnet - Merriwa, 1970s

Welcome to your NSW RFS Library

Our NSW RFS library has for 20 years actively understood, supported and enriched the NSW Rural Fire Service information needs.

The library houses a tailored collection, both hardcopy and online, and delivers high-quality, professional library services to our members. The library collecton focuses on published wildfires/bush fires resources but also covers topics such as emergency management, natural sciences, fire science, professional development, leadership, and health and safety.

The library is for all our NSW RFS members to use.

How can the library help you?

Information assistance: Ask the librarian for assistance in sourcing publications for your work-related project.

Current awareness: Request alerts for new journal issues or tailored for your topic of interest

Loans: Books may be borrowed by all members of the NSW RFS. Items are posted to your nominated address and return is easy - use the enclosed return address label and hand in at your district office.

Interlibrary loans: Items not held in the NSW RFS library can be obtained from other libraries.

Subject reading lists: Collaborate with your professional librarian to compile subject-specific reading guides.

Literacy classes: Individual or group literacy training available online or face-to-face to improve your searching skills

If you are visiting NSW RFS HQ, please use our Library to study, browse our collection and borrow books, meet guests, or enjoy some quiet time.

Browse our Bush Fire Bulletin online through Trove

The NSW Rural Fire Service, with the National Library of Australia, has digitised the entire collection of the Bush Fire Bulletin dating back to September 1952. The digitised collection also includes the Sitrep bulletin (a joint publication that incorporated both our Bush Fire Bulletin and the SES Bulletin) from 1976 to 1978.

This historical archived collection is available online in Trove.

Browse the collection.

Bush Fire Bulletin (1952 – 1975)

Sitrep (1976 – 1978)

Bush Fire Bulletin (1978 – 2022)

Search the collection.

If you are looking for articles on a particular topic, e.g. the town of Merriwa, you can easily search the whole Bulletin collection in Trove.

Open the Trove search box using this link. The search box is pre-filled with the Bulletin catalogue items. There are over 6000 articles.
In the search box (after the Bulletin Catalogue items), type in AND followed by your keyword(s) e.g. AND Merriwa
Click on the search icon. The resulting articles will be listed.

Please contact the library if you need any assistance.