Celebrating the purchase of land for a new station are (top row) brigade captain Tony van Meurs, Emergency Services minister Bob Cameron, former captain Barry Marshall, 1st Lieutenant Hazel Clothier, fire fighter Ashleigh Chaplin, Gembrook MP Tammy Lobato and Eastern Metropolitan CFA manager Lex de Man; and bottom row, fire fighter Robert Lane, brigade secretary Melissa Milich, fire fighter Terri Hartmann and fire fighter Jessica Head. 54309
By Mara Pattison-Sowden
WARBURTON Country Fire Brigade finally has a patch of land to call home.
After an election promise in 2006 and an allocation of funds from the state budget, the frustrating problem of those involved has been the task of finding and purchasing a suitable site.
The State Government and CFA have come under constant criticism for being what the Opposition labelled as slow off the mark, but Emergency Services Minister Bob Cameron told the CFA volunteers, “Warburton presented a particular problem”.
It has taken three years to find that suitable site, and last Tuesday (28 September) Mr Cameron joined Gembrook MP Tammy Lobato and Yarra area CFA manager Lex de Man to unveil the site of Warburton Fire Brigade’s new station.
Mr Cameron admitted the purchase of the land had been “a long time in the coming” but said the State Government had already allocated the $1.53 million for the station in the 2007-08 budget.
“We’ve purchased the land and it will be cleared, planned, and in 12 months’ time Warburton will have a new station,” he said.
Ms Lobato said the location, on the corner of Park Road and Warburton Highway, would “house a fantastic state-of-the-art station”.
The two houses on the piece of land will be cleared to make way for the station, with the home owners agreeing to the valuation.
Ms Lobato said there was a possibility they would have had to resort to compulsory acquisition.
“We looked for many, many sites, and all of them fell through for one reason or another. So when you come up and you find something so suitable you work to make it happen,” she said.
Mr de Man said it had been hard to find an appropriate parcel of land due to the topography of the Warburton area.
“We will be building a facility for the next 30 to 40 years and we have to get it right in terms of car parking, a training area, and access and there is just not that much flat land in Warburton,” he said.
Mr de Man acknowledged former Warburton CFA captain Barry Marshall for his persistence in helping to find an appropriate site.
“Barry would call me every four weeks with a snippet of information about new land for sale,” Mr de Man said.
“It shows that if you leave a problem at the local level they can help facilitate you to help get it done.”
Brigade captain Tony van Meurs said he was pleased to see another step in the project for the benefit of his 53 volunteers.
He re-stated that the current station, built in 1982, wasn’t big enough for the brigade’s trucks.
There is insufficient parking for volunteers, the only access to the meeting room and kitchen is via stairs and the trucks need to back off the busy Warburton Highway into the station.
“There’s still a fair bit of work to be done, but at least we’re heading in the right direction,” he said.
