By Xavier Smerdon
TARNEIT will get $7 million for a new fire station if the Brumby Government is re-elected this month.
Member for Tarneit, Tim Pallas, told Star last week that the government had committed to the project, which will see the Hoppers Crossing station moved to Tarneit.
As part of the $147.7 million plan to build and rebuild fire stations across Victoria, Mr Pallas said it would allow our firefighters to better service the area.
“I know the community and the firefighters in the area have basically been asking for a relocation to a better standard facility,” he said.
“It’s pretty exciting and a very substantial part of the $147 million has come to Tarneit.”
Acting Officer in Charge of the Hoppers Crossing Fire Station, Kade Dowie, said he was ecstatic with the announcement.
“We’ve been looking to relocate to cover a bigger area, and this way we will also be able to work with the Point Cook and Werribee stations to better service the area,” he said.
“We’ve basically outgrown our facilities here and we desperately need a new station the size of the one they are talking about.”
The new station will be a type 3B, which is the largest type of station, and will have facilities such as a kitchen, staff amenities, a multipurpose room, a workshop, store room, motor room, brigade office, gym and general administration.
Mr Dowie said the area that the current station serviced was overlapping with the Werribee station, making the move to Tarneit essential.
He said the $7 million provided for the project was an excellent result.
“That will be fantastic,” he said.
“It will go a long way to building a state-of-the-art fire station for us and the rest of the community,” he said.
It is believed the new station will be located be located at Sayers and Derrimut roads in Tarneit.
Mr Pallas said this new funding was on top of $54.4 million already committed for the Community Safety Emergency Support Program (CSESP).
“While Labor has pledged to commit record funding of $54.4 million to the CSESP, Ted Baillieu and Glenn Goodfellow have earmarked the program as one of the first to have its funding slashed to $20 million,” he said.
