Highlights
- The 2027 Australian Firefighters Calendar launched Oct. 20 in five editions, its biggest worldwide release yet.
- Geelong’s David Moore, 56, says he’s the most popular model, as Shanghai fans swamped a 1,200-copy release.
- The calendar has donated over $3.5 million since 1993 to rescue pets, wildlife carers and a sanctuary in Sicily.
The hottest wall art of 2027 just dropped, and its breakout star is a 56-year-old from Geelong.
“Through social media, I’m the most popular person in the calendar,” Senior Station Officer David Moore said. The rookies can take a number.
The 2027 Australian Firefighters Calendar launched October 20 with its biggest worldwide release yet, reaching fans across the USA, Europe, and Asia. Now in its 34th year, it comes in five editions: Dog, Cat, Horse, Mixed Animal and Hero.
Translation: shirtless men holding animals, sorted by species. Instinct Magazine skipped the pretense and called it “the annual thirst trap with a heart of gold.”
The whole thing was shot on the Gold Coast. The firefighters “somehow manage to make cuddling a kitten look like an Olympic sport.”
The overseas fandom has officially tipped into chaos. At the China International Import Expo in Shanghai, a 5,000-person waitlist formed for just 1,200 copies, and organizers had to halt distribution over crowd safety concerns.
Footage from the event went viral on Xiaohongshu, China’s answer to Instagram, pulling in more than 10 million views across Chinese social media. That’s not a calendar launch. That’s a K-pop airport arrival.
Moore gets it. He describes the crew as “just an old boy band.”
He credits the global frenzy to one thing: the rest of the world finds Australian firefighters exotic. In Taiwan, he said, fans scream, wave and know the guys by name, and admirers line up to be scooped into a bridal-carry photo.
The man’s résumé is legit, too. Moore has nearly 25 years on the front line after ditching a desk job at Telstra, and in April he commanded crews at the Viva Refinery fire in Geelong.
He hits the gym with his wife, Liz, even after night shifts, and spent his holidays on a 70-kilometer trek through the Swiss Alps. Most 56-year-olds consider a brisk walk to the mailbox cardio.
Not everyone is planning a long reign. Michael Galanos, now on his fourth calendar, admitted, “I’ll be 40 next year, so not sure how many more I’ll have left.”
Now for the part that makes the ogling guilt-free. Since 1993, the calendar has donated more than $3.5 million to charities in Australia and abroad.
Every cat and kitten in the Cat edition is a rescue. Wildcare Inc., which cares for sick and orphaned wildlife in the Northern Territory, had zero government funding when the calendar team first reached out and has since grown to 140 carers.
The money also backs Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital’s Matilda, a 22-wheel mobile clinic built after the 2019–2020 bushfires. This year brings the first European partner, too: L’Arca di Natalia, a volunteer-run refuge at the foot of Mount Etna in Sicily.
Moore said the payoff is seeing small groups actually change, recalling a $5,000 donation to a Queensland horse rescue that brought volunteers to tears.
The crew now boasts more than 2.6 million followers across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Clearly, nobody is buying this thing to track dentist appointments.
