For Bendigo CFA captain Daniel McMahon however, it was a call he received twice in six days.

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He was called out to Castlemaine Diggings National Park on December 5 to rescue Bruno the Bull-Arab after he'd fallen into a mine-shaft.

Not a week later he was in Woodend helping the team carry out a similar rescue for Terry the kelpie-cross.

Originally out for a harmless camp with his owner, Terry was out for a run when he didn't see the mine-shaft and fell down the hole.

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It was understandable as the mine-shafts are hard enough to see at the best of times, captain McMahon said.

"The Woodend team did a great job in securing the scene," he said.

"One of the biggest risks at a job like this is when the owners try to communicate with their loved animal and ending up falling into the shaft as well.

"It was a 15 metre shaft but we thought it may have been a false floor - meaning there could have been another 10 or 20 metres below if the floor had collapsed."

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Thankfully, Terry was in surprisingly good nick when the Woodend team retrieved him from the shaft.

"The owner was ecstatic when they were reunited," captain McMahon said.

He said it was great to have a good result from both incidents as it had been a while since they'd been called out to a rescue.

"Rescuing a dog in a mineshaft is a serious job, but for us it also doubles as real-world experience in case we are called to a community member in the same unfortunate situation," he said.

"In both scenarios it's a multi-agency effort, there's crowd control required and there's a very concerned person pushing us to rescue their loved one."

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