By Taylah Eastwell
Within seconds of snapping a photograph of Emerald SES volunteers at the site of their new headquarters, the volunteer’s phones began screeching with alarm bells.
Five men, already in their gear, piled into the SES four-wheel-drive and raced through the main street with lights flashing. In that moment, nothing else mattered.
Rushing to the aid of the community is nothing out of the norm for local Emerald SES volunteers, but recently, the Emerald community came together to give them something long-overdue in return.
After a 30-year fight to get a new SES shed with reasonable facilities, over 1,100 residents from Emerald and surrounds came together to sign a petition created by Gembrook MP Brad Battin.
Following many speeches in Parliament, and years of pushing, the Andrews Government finally announced it would fund the new station in Emerald last year.
There were smiles all round as SES members met with Mr Battin on Monday 26 April to show off the first stages of construction of their new base.
Emerald SES Unit Controller Ben Owen said it was surreal to see the station finally being built.
“It is exciting to see it grow. I’ve been in the unit 17 years and it was in the planning phase then, we were being told it’s not going to be far away, won’t be far away, it’s now 17 years later,” he said.
Mr Owen said there was also a plan in the 80’s for a co-location site to be shared with the Emerald CFA that never eventuated.
“So it’s taken over 30 years to get a purpose built facility,” he said.
Opening his car boot on the side of the road, Mr Owen points to his clothes and says that is the closest thing he has to a change room and locker, with the current site on Old Gembrook Road not offering these facilities or an appropriate training space to teach new members the ropes.
“A lot of us just put up with it because we don’t know any better, we’ve never been at another SES unit, but the current shed compromises our ability to have meetings and training, even just to have a chat with a member and see how they’re going, because we just don’t have the space,” Mr Owen said.
“We do on average over 1000 calls a year so we are busy, so not being able to adequately provide meals for volunteers at times or a hot shower after coming back from a rainy job, it’s that sort of stuff,” he said.
A VICSES spokesperson confirmed that Emerald SES is the “second busiest VICSES unit in the entire state, with 1,283 requests for assistance in the last 12 months”.
“This includes calls to trees down, building damage, flood, road rescue, landslide, assisting other emergency agencies and more,” the spokesperson said.
The only unit with a higher call-out rate than Emerald is Lilydale, who attended 1,332 incidents in the last year.
The new Emerald site will include five drive through engine bays that will fit up to 10 vehicles and trailers, administrative offices, a training room, wellbeing area for volunteers, and a turn out area to facilitate efficient operations.
“We currently have to store one of our vehicles at Cockatoo CFA because we just don’t have the space, so it’s going to be huge,” Mr Owen said.
Mr Battin said the volunteers had “known for a long time they were left in a facility that was not anywhere near OHS standards anywhere in the world”.
“Yet they had to work from it and still protect the community. They deserve the rewards, they’re a wonderful volunteer organisation, they put in so many hours and go out and do wonderful jobs, it’s an exceptional outcome for a great group of people,” he said.
“This wouldn’t of happened unless the guys and girls of Emerald SES fought, yelled and screamed because there was no intention of the government doing this, it was only because they continued to push it and got the community to back them.
The new site is set to be complete in July or August 2021.
