Mr Barker, who now lives in the Victorian town of Warragul, was awarded an Order of Australia medal in the general division “for service to the community of Glen Innes” on Australia Day.

As captain of the Red Range brigade he was sent to take on the Victorian bushfires, which had already wrecked over a million acres of rural Victoria.

“The weather temporarily changed, giving firefighters a five-day window to build a backburn strong enough stop the fire when it inevitably returned.

“Every time you go to a fire line you’re putting yourself in front of fire which in itself is dangerous,” he said.

“For the uninitiated, if you’ve never been out to a bushfire you turn up and think wow this is pretty horrible and dangerous. But once you’ve been around it a while and you understand it it makes the danger manageable.”

He returned to Glen Innes and watched as their containment lines held. He saved hundreds of houses and potentially even lives. The Black Saturday bushfire killed 180 Victorians in a blaze that reached up to an estimated 1200 degrees. 

“We were pretty chuffed it didn’t get out (of the containment), it was pretty full-on.”

Mr Barker was also involved in Rotary in a number of roles, was President of the Glencoe sports ground committee, a member of the Arts council and chairman of the high school council.

Last year Kenneth received Glen Innes Severn Council’s citizen of the year award.

He was part of the committee that moved Glen Industries, the sheltered workshop formerly based in Wentworth street. The committee was split over the decision and there was a lot of ill feeling and personal grievance.

“I was invited along to the meeting to see if I could do something,” he said. “And I ended up with the job as chairman at that meeting.”

Ultimately they sold the old location and moved it to a site next to the library on land given the Industry site by council.