By Mikayla van Loon
Two urban CFA brigades have been successful in this year’s round of a Victorian Government grant program, enabling them to undertake facility upgrades or purchase new vehicles.
The Volunteer Emergency Services Equipment Program (VESEP) for 2024-25 will see Chirnside Park CFA receive $71,000 for a field command vehicle (FCV) and Mount Evelyn CFA receive $20,000 for minor improvement works at its home base.
Mount Evelyn CFA captain Rick Ventrella said the brigade would be using the funds to install new electric and fob-operated gates at the side of the station.
“The current gates have been there before I started some 21 years ago and are well overdue for an upgrade,” he said.
“Not only will it improve the security to the station but the members will be able to activate the gates with their allocated fobs that they already have. They will no longer have to physically get out of their car, use the assigned code and open them manually.”
The new FVC heading to Chirnside Park will replace the existing vehicle which is reaching the end of its life.
“Our current field command vehicle was sent to us on becoming a brigade [nine years ago], which we set up as best we could,” Chirnside Park CFA captain Ben Cash said.
“We’ve had a few mechanical issues with the car, so we jumped at the opportunity to apply for the funding and we’re very fortunate that we’ve been successful in that.”
An FCV has a multi-dimensional use for large scale events both locally and across the state, for traffic management, as well as being an easily accessible vehicle for all brigade members to use if needed.
“It’s used for operational incidents. So it can be deployed to large bush fires anywhere in the state as part of a strike team or we can use it locally if we need to get more members onto a fire ground,” Mr Cash said.
“You can run large jobs from this car, because it’s fitted with communications, tables to do mapping, it has a lot of support equipment on it that crews will use for both structured fires and grass and scrub fires.”
Being a more modern vehicle and featuring a “standard layout”, Mr Cash said it would be “built the same as most of the field command vehicles out there in Victoria at the moment”.
“That gives us flexibility, that if one of our members needs to jump on a FCV from another brigade, the layout should be very similar, if not the same,” he said.
“So it allows for great cooperation between brigades and ensures when members are sent away, there’s guild on all bits of equipment.”
VESEP funding sees a contribution from the State Government of $2 for every $1 of funding raised by the local volunteer group.
Mr Ventrella and Mr Cash said without the VESEP funding and the support their brigades receive from the community, these projects and purchases would not be possible.
“The VESEP funding has definitely assisted with the gate project with the brigade not having to fund them entirely. This allows us to look at other items that enhance the members skills along with their safety which we then use on the fire ground or where it is needed,” Mr Ventrella said.
“Mt Evelyn and surrounding communities have always supported us and all of our fundraising events that we hold throughout different times of the year whether it’s our Garage Sale, Australia Day carwash, Coffee N Cars or just a good old sausage sizzle out the front of IGA. It’s through these event’s and the money raised that we are able to look at projects like the current one.”
“Thanks to the contribution of our local community over a number of years, through fundraisers and direct donations, the brigade’s in a position where we’re able to afford that extra contribution required. So it’s in large part it’s thanks to our community that we’re able to afford this,” Mr Cash said of the Chirnside Park community.
As with all projects, there is a wait in the lead time, with Mr Cash expecting the new vehicle to take between nine and 12 months to complete meaning it should arrive before next year’s fire season, while Mr Ventrella is working through all the necessary requirements but hopes for a timely completion date.
Mr Ventrella wanted to reassure the Mount Evelyn community that installation of the new gates would not impact the brigade’s ability to respond to callouts or operations.
To learn more about volunteering, visit cfa.vic.gov.au/volunteers-careers/volunteer-with-cfa and to donate, go to cfa.vic.gov.au/about-us/fundraising-and-partnerships/donate-to-cfa
