A former high-ranking police officer, air ambulance campaigner, refugee resettlement facilitator, Australian Bravery Foundation founder and Air Force cadet trainer Mr Robinson's life is inextricably linked to community.

He returns to the Wimmera after 18 years away to start the next chapter of his community-based career as CFA District 17 volunteer co-ordinator.

Mr Robinson grew up on a farm at Pine Lake, just outside Horsham.

After joining the police in 1971, he served in the force for 39 years.

Mr Robinson worked in Melbourne before being promoted to Horsham as a sergeant and inspector.

He then moved to the Western District as chief inspector.

Mr Robinson did stints in Ballarat as an Acting Superintendent and in the western suburbs of Melbourne.

"In Melbourne I realised interactions with the Sudanese weren't working too well in the western suburbs," he said.

Mr Robinson became heavily involved with a plan to settle South Sudanese migrants in Warrnambool.

"The South Sudanese are used to police with machine guns," he said.

"I can walk into a supermarket down there even now and I haven't been a policeman for five years and they'll put their arms around me.

"It goes to show, you can make a big difference."

Mr Robinson said educating south-west Victoria about South Sudanese people was crucial to their successful interaction.

"South-west Victoria is the whitest European part of Australia and we were bringing people from a vastly different background into a very traditional community," he said.

"The first families that came are still there and their children have been born in our hospitals, so they are very much part of the community.

"They've got their own leadership structure, they're fully integrated and they are just great people."

The migrant settlement program received several awards including one for excellence at the National Local Government Awards.

Mr Robinson said the model was highly successful and could be applied to the Wimmera.

"That sort of model would work anywhere it's just about understanding where some of these folk are coming from they've had a dreadful time."

Before his retirement from the police force Mr Robinson accomplished one of his proudest achievements successfully leading a campaign for an air ambulance to be based in south-west Victoria.

"I've had a lot of people come up to me and say 'thanks you saved my life, you saved aunty Dolly's life' but the reality is, it was a huge team effort," Mr Robinson said.

He said the 10-year project was the result of a collaboration between volunteers representing a range of emergency services.

"Nobody really understood in Melbourne how it worked because we had all these people doing things voluntarily," he said.

Mr Robinson said the air ambulance which has recently been replaced for the first time had major implications for the Wimmera.

"The good thing for our community is the new helicopter is an AW139," he said.

"It will fly at 160 knots instead of about 125 knots and carries a lot more fuel, so it will get up here a lot easier and have the capacity to fly to the major trauma centres in Melbourne, Ballarat or Geelong."

Mr Robinson has a commercial pilot's licence and at one time headed the police air wing division.

"While I'm keen on flying I'm more keen on seeing assets used appropriately to the community's benefit," he said.

Mr Robinson is kept busy in one of his other roles teaching Air Force cadets to fly.

In his job at CFA District 17 he will support volunteers and provide them with the resources to do their jobs.

"What we've got to realise is that a lot of these volunteers are leaders and they are leaders in their own community beyond CFA," he said.

Mr Robinson is also the founder and chairman of the Australian Bravery Association which provides support to people involved in acts of bravery.

He said a third of people involved in acts of bravery suffered post or acute traumatic stress disorder.

"A lot of these people fall through society's cracks if they are struggling," he said.

"There's the notion that if you're brave, you're bulletproof.

"But if part of your act of bravery involves rescuing someone who died or rescuing some and others died it can be pretty tough."

Mr Robinson received a bravery award after removing air craft from the area of a suspected bomb at the 1997 Avalon Air Show.

"I got an award and it certainly came with some issues," he said.

"If you're involved in an act of bravery and it is recognised you get a medal, a pat on the back and a glass of champagne with the State Governor and out the door you go."

He said the foundation existed through the philanthropy of Geoff Hanbury.

Mr Robinson said he always intended to return home eventually.

He said his youngest son joining the army gave him and his wife Sue the freedom to make the move back to the Wimmera.