There is presently no uniform or nationally mandated base level assessment of volunteer firefighters’ physical capacity for tanker-based bushfire suppression within Australia. This research sought to develop a Physical Selection Test (PST) to meet the operational needs of such duties. A PST can identify personnel who are capable of performing the individual job tasks without undue risk of physical harm. There are various methodologies by which current PST have been designed. However, this research developed a unique process which involved a multi-stage process consulting fire agency experts, incumbents, movement specialists and employment law specialists. 

Fire agency experts will identify the parameters a PST must meet, ensuring the PST could be practically and effectively implemented nationally. Incumbent firefighters will identify and verify the current job demands and duties. In addition, incumbents will provide their opinion of likeness of the PST to the job tasks across various realms, including environmental, cognitive and physical. Movement experts will ensure movement patterns and physical requirements of the job tasks are evident in components of the PST. Finally, the employment law specialists ensure the PST developed is in accord with the Australian legislation of employee discrimination practices. The inclusion of the various specialist groups will provide a PST which is legally defensible and addresses agency implementation requirements. Through the use of a novel assessment technique utilising a wide spread survey of incumbents, the links between the job tasks and PST will be evident to the incumbent firefighters, thus assisting in user acceptance of the PST.