His grandfather Alf “Tapper” Bishop joined up in 1911 and was secretary of the Mildura Urban Fire Brigade for 40 years.

Peter’s dad Kel joined up in 1924 and retired at 65 – the compulsory age at that time – and continued his involvement with the Mildura brigade until his death in 1976.

Peter’s brother Ian has had 50 years of service and continues to be involved in brigade activities.

Both Peter and Ian’s families have been involved for a period of time as well – a family of volunteer firefighters serving their community proudly.

“It’s 100 years of continuous service from the Bishop family to the Mildura Fire Brigade at the local level that I’m most proud of,” the soon to retire long-serving volunteer association delegate said.

“I’ve spent 26 years and two months representing the Country Fire Authority (CFA) volunteers at state level and in that time have had over 500 trips to Melbourne, resulting in me being away from home for three and a half years in those 26.

“That equates to over 22 times around the world in kilometres travelled, attending nearly 1500 meetings and presenting 168 awards to fellow firefighters,” the high achieving firefighter said.

Saturday, September 18 will be Peter’s last day as the Victorian State District 18 delegate to the volunteer association, during which time he was president on two occasions – 1988-89 and 1992-93.

“I remember in the second term I was only home for three weekends for the year – very tiring, but most enjoyable.

“I used to ask my wife Lyn if it was OK for me to go away to attend meetings – she always said it was – but after a short period of time with our three young kids – Nadine, Timothy and Christopher keeping her busy – I just said, ‘I won’t be home this weekend or whatever.’

For more of this story, purchase your copy of Tuesday’s Sunraysia Daily 07/09/2010.