Truganina and Wyndham Vale CFA captains have welcomed $7.5 million in state government funding for new fire stations for their brigades.
Werribee MP Tim Pallas and the Minister for Emergency Services James Merlino visited the current Wyndham Vale fire station on Friday to deliver the news to a group of CFA volunteers.
Mr Pallas said the funding would be split between the two brigades, with $1.5 million to be put towards the acquisition of land for each site and $2.25 million for the development of the two new stations.
Construction of the new, permanent stations is expected to be completed by June 2019.
Mr Pallas said the new stations would mean “improved fire services to cope with continued population growth” in Wyndham Vale and Truganina.
Wyndham Vale CFA brigade captain Trevor Weston said the unit’s volunteers were “really excited” about the funding announcement.
He said their present station, on Ballan Road, was only ever meant to be a temporary base. Mr Weston said the unit had about 40 operational members, all volunteers, and moving to a bigger station would enable them to expand by about 20 members.
He said while it was “early days” for the planning of the new station, it was set to be about “four or five times bigger” than the current station.
It will include more space for emergency training, meeting rooms, offices, a kitchen and an expanded motor room to park fire vehicles.
Mr Weston said the CFA was working with developers to find a site for the new Wyndham Vale fire station.
Truganina CFA captain Colleen Goodfellow said her unit was also in the process of searching for a location to build its future station.
The brigade’s 75 volunteers are now based at a leased site on Leakes Road, where they have separate buildings for the motor room, a meeting room and storage shed.
“Building a new station, it means everything will be under one roof, which will be good.”
