Staff Spotlight – Tait Fraser

We had the chance to chat with Tait Fraser, a great Emergency Services Officer (ESO). Despite his busy schedule, Tait generously took some time to share insights about his life and his work at Corporate Protection Australia Fire & Rescue.

What is your professional background?

After leaving school I wasn’t really sure where I wanted to head with my career. Having majority of my family in either the police or fire services, it only really left two options. I ended up working in Canine services as a dog handler with a general-purpose patrol dog. After a year of doing this, my K9 Zali and I found our feet and qualified in explosives and firearms detection. This was a great achievement for us, graduating our course in NSW and returning to Tasmania.

In 2020, just after the first covid lockdowns, I was offered a transfer to Queensland, and I can tell you, moving from Tas to QLD in this time was an experience…

After 8 years of long shifts and extreme pressure and a massive workload, Zali started to develop arthritis (typical in K9 working breeds) so it was time to retire her. This left an empty feeling and once again it was time to find my feet. I ended up doing greenkeeping for a little while until Kevin took me on board!

Where are you working now?

I am now employed as an ESO at Curragh Minesite in Central Queensland.

What other Corporate Protection sites have you worked?

I have had the great opportunity to experience many different sites CPA Fire & Rescue offer, from Southwest QLD gas fields, all the way up to being a primary rescue tech on a major shutdown in Gladstone, to then providing services to a mine site located just outside of Emerald.

What are your primary responsibilities?

Our day-to-day responsibilities on site range from customer service to drug and alcohol testing to safety inspections. No day is typically the same on site. One minute we might be participating in an investigation, to drop everything to respond to an emergency. We have a big emphasis on site to prevent the emergencies happening, so day to day we might be out in the pits, meeting the crews, inspecting access, completing safety interactions or attending pre starts.

Training is also a big part of our jobs. Best practices and industry standards are always changing and keeping on top of them in critical in your success to conduct your job with professionalism and integrity.

What do you find most challenging or fulfilling in your role?

Fulfilling parts of the role is definitely the team spirit and comradery. You are with your team as much as you are with your family at home. They very quickly become your second family, and you have a very strong bond. Knowing that you have made a difference on-site to keep the workers safe and they are going home to their families at the end of their swing is a great feeling, it is a high-risk industry so to have no incidents on shift means everyone has done their jobs.

What do  you find most challenging?

Challenging parts of the role would have to be the remoteness of site. You can be hours away from help, so knowing it’s just you and your team is a big weight on your shoulders.

And what do you do in your spare time?

In my spare time I still get out and do training with Zali, even though she doesn’t come to work anymore she still believes she’s a working dog! Other than that, my time is spent tending to the little zoo at home with the 6 chickens, 3 reptiles, fish and our other dog. I still occasionally help with the greenkeeping and I’m a Rural Firefighter back home too.

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What would your manager say?

Kev would say I’m a typical firefighter, live, breath and bleed it. He would also probably make the comment that there is a black cloud that follows me, and my current crew were very quickly introduced to that!