The Director of UNSW IT Customer Service is also a Deputy Captain in the Rural Fire Service.
A chance conversation during his time in the Navy led to a career in technology. Now Mark Griffith oversees the teams that deliver IT services at UNSW. Before joining the University in 2017, his career spanned technology delivery roles in banking, aviation and outsourcing companies.
“I ended up in technology during the first Gulf War. I’d been using a laptop that I bought in Pearl Harbour to help restructure Navy bases,” he said.
“Somebody said, ‘You’re really good with this technology. We're struggling to figure out who's on what ship in the Gulf. Can you go over and help them?’ So, I started to build the first Australia-wide networks for defence.”
Outside work, Mark enjoys spending time in nature, whether that’s on his property at Kulnura on the Central Coast, taking landscape photos, volunteering with the Rural Fire Service (RFS) or scuba diving.
RFS volunteering to build and support community
Mark is a Deputy Captain in the RFS and has volunteered with his local brigade for the past 20 years.
“I went up to the local RFS station one night and said, ‘Can I help? If I expect you to turn up to my place, I better turn up to yours.’ And I've been doing that ever since.”
Volunteering has brought a raft of different experiences.
“We’re fully trained to run any size incident we come across. When the pager or the phone goes off, it’s three kilometres up to the fire station, then straight out the door under red flashing lights within about eight minutes or so.”
Mark’s brigade was on the front line during the 2019–2020 bushfires.
“On one fire I had about 26 trucks under my control, looking after the local community,” he said.
Early planning and containment work prior to the fires helped reduce the impact on the more populated areas of the Central Coast.
“I was getting up at 4am or 5am, doing my normal work day until about 11am, then jumping in the RFS ute and going out until about 9pm or 10pm, then coming home, having a few hours’ sleep and then doing it all over again.”
Alongside the containment work, Mark’s crew responded to the New Year’s Eve fire in Bateman’s Bay and fires near Goulburn.
“We responded from the Central Coast to Bateman’s Bay under full lights and sirens, which was about a five-hour drive,” he says.
“I was taking all fire 000 calls covering Moruya to Bateman’s Bay from about 6pm to 3am and running the six trucks, diverting them to whatever the incident was. This was the night where the beaches were crowded as the fires were burning suburbs all the way to the water on the South Coast.
“We brought in New Year's Eve inside the local Betta Electrical store, trying to put a fire out.”
Training first responders
As well as a crew leader, Mark is an instructor with the RFS, teaching and assessing other leaders’ skills.
RFS crews are first responders for emergencies of all types in regional areas. Mark’s brigade receives about 100 calls a year ranging from medical emergencies to motor vehicle accidents, in addition to fire-related callouts.
“It’s about 40 minutes for the nearest ambulance or police car to get out here, but we can be rolling within 10 minutes and at the site within 15. We have specialist training from Westpac Rescue Helicopter on how to prepare people for extraction.”
Through the RFS, Mark says he’s seen the best – and the worst – of people. One of the best things, he says, is the culture of volunteering in our communities.
“Australia is unique because we have a strong volunteer ethos and volunteer service. The RFS is part of the community and helping the community. There’s a lot that people can get out of it.”
Can you tell us something that might surprise your colleagues about you?
I have trophies from state and national high-performance catamaran sailing championships.
What's the best advice you ever received?
Be careful what you ask for; you just might get it. I use this philosophy to make sure I am all-in with what I ask for and ready for anything that comes as a result.
What's one thing that makes you happy?
Being in the bush, just listening to the animals, to the birds, to nature in and of itself, or even underwater in the solitude.
What day in your life would you like to relive?
I take each day as it comes, and each one is pretty unique. I’ve found that even on the worst days, some good stuff comes out of it.
What's the best thing you've watched in the last year?
Not a TV show, but rather the developing cultural heritage at a school in Vanuatu. On a recent holiday, we went into a local preschool and provided materials to help them provide early education.
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