By Gabriella Payne
A number of residents in the Gembrook area are growing concerned that the local Parks depot may be closed in the near future and moved to Woori Yallock, after rumours started circulating about town.
Brian Petrie (AFSM recipient and dedicated firefighter) from the Gembrook Fire Brigade said that this move (if true) was a “big concern for local residents“ and firefighters, as the local Parks depot crew looked after the nearby state forests.
He said that if the station did move to Woori Yallock, it would mean that if a lightning strike or natural event started a fire in the nearby forests, crews would have further to travel to respond to it and more of a burden would be placed on local firefighters – something they wanted to avoid if possible.
“If the Parks depot in Gembrook was to transfer up to Woori Yallock, then all their gear would be kept up there,“ he said.
“It would put a lot more pressure on volunteers to control fires in the state parks until they got there.
“We always support them anyway [as firefighters], but it won’t improve their working and maintenance time in the [local] state parks if they have to travel further.“
Parks Victoria was contacted with these concerns and asked whether or not these rumours had any truth to them.
“No decision to close the Parks Victoria Gembrook work centre has been made,“ a spokesperson responded.
“If any closure was proposed, it would need to be endorsed by the Department of the Environment, Land, Water and Planning to ensure there was no impact to bushfire response in the area.
“Parks Victoria is committed to providing a high level of service to the management of Bunyip State Park and Kurth Kiln Regional Park as well as other sites managed out of the Gembrook work centre,“ they said.
Despite no decision having “been made“ yet, we asked whether discussions were being had and if the closure was a possibility – to which we received no response.
