Thursday, 7 April 2022

Country Fire Authority Appin South brigade

Mr WALSH (Murray Plains) (09:36): On behalf of Captain Jack Hewitt of the Appin South CFA and the whole Appin South and Appin community, I raise their concerns in this house about the fact that they desperately need a new fire station. The current fire station is over 40 years old. It is not fit for purpose anymore. It is located on a sweeping bend with a blind spot when people are travelling to the west, and it is dangerous to take the truck out of the shed on that particular road. Where the fire station is located was flooded in the 2011 floods, and the CFA told the brigade they needed to find a new site to build a new fire shed. Darren and Tania Sutherland have kindly donated land on Loddon River Road, which has been subdivided and is there ready to have a fire shed built on it, but they cannot get funding from the CFA. I would urge the Andrews government in this year’s budget to provide funding to the Appin South brigade to have a new fire station built on Loddon River Road.

It takes a strong community to make sure there are enough people to have a fire brigade in a community. This community deserve a new station so they have a place to meet and they have a decent shed to put the fire truck in. They lost their football ground and they lost their community centre with the football club closing there a number of years ago. This is a great opportunity to empower that community, to reinvigorate that community and to make sure there is a strong brigade there into the future. On behalf of Jack Hewitt, the captain, and the community, I urge the Andrews Labor government to please fund a new fire station in the budget.