There have been many members of the brigade since its inception, and a notable number have been very long-standing. One such is John Gellatley who, in 2009, wrote a booklet on the History of the Brigade. The booklet, published by the Brigade, is shown to the right, with copies available at the Fire Station.

Matcham Holgate Brigade began life as the Matcham Holgate Volunteer Bushfire Brigade in the 1950s. The volunteers were mostly citrus and vegetable farmers who used hand tools and knapsack pumps kept at their farms.

The original fire station was built in 1968 by Gosford Shire Council. In 1989, the station was raised to hold a larger tanker, with further improvements and extensions following during the 1990s.

Through a continued succession of organisation by state and local governments since World War II, local volunteer brigades have emerged to become part of the NSW Rural Fire Service (1997 Rural Fires Act), the largest fire fighting organisation in the world.

The brigade vehicles are the most significant and core components of the equipment utilised by the firefighting teams. At a major incident, the crew can spend up to 15 hours travelling and working from the vehicle.

The first vehicle given to the brigade was a former World War II Blitz wagon. Since then there has been a succession of fire fighting vehicles, including the Brigade raising funds over some years to purchase in 1991 its own "Striker", a Toyota Landcruiser Category 9 fast-response fire fighter. Today, all vehicles are fitted and supplied by NSW RFS.

The current tankers include 2 Isuzu all wheel drive vehicles, capable of off-road access for bush fire fighting.

The Category 1 tanker ("Matcham 1") was given to the brigade in 2007 and is the primary response vehicle with a compliment of 6 crew and a 3,300 litre water tank.

The Category 7 tanker ("Matcham 7") arrived in 2012 and is a lighter tanker with a crew of 3 and a tank capacity of 1600 litres. The brigade was required to sell the Cat 9 Striker on condition of being given the Cat 7 from the Rural Fire Service.