Jade Jungwirth
The fire brigade in Taradale, which sits on the edge of two shires and two electorates, has been denied funding for a second fire fighting appliance, every year… for the past 11 years.
The brigade has been applying for funding through the Volunteer Emergency Services Equipment Program since 2014, and as the only one in the Mount Alexander Group without a second appliance, the members can’t understand why they keep getting rejected.
Captain Lachie Elliot said they kept getting pushed from pillar to post.
“We get told told ‘there isn’t enough money’, or ‘you don’t need it’. Every year there’s a different excuse and you get a bit tired of it,” he said.
“The community is at the forefront of what we do. Obviously we help other neighbouring brigades when we can, but in a nutshell it’s about our community and when we leave, our little town is unprotected.”
Taradale sits on the edge of the Fryers Range State Forest and is located between Elphinstone and Malmsbury. It subsequently gets called out to support teams from both the Mount Alexander and Macedon Ranges shires.
The brigade currently has 17 active firefighters, one tanker and an old vehicle that has no water and no crew protection. When members take the tanker to an incident they are left with no other appliance, leaving the town and its residents unprotected.
Third Lieutenant Tracey Whiteside told the Mail that she and Lachie attended a call out last year for a lightning strike in the forest.
“We were only given a rough idea of where it might be and there were a few different ways to get there, so Lachie and I went in the car to try to find it, and the tanker went in the other direction,” she said.
“We found it first and we couldn’t do anything except stamp it with our boots until the tanker got there 10 minutes later.”
The brigade community safety coordinator, Jodie Parker, said when they attended an incident they usually had a full tanker and often additional people.
“Most of the brigades in the Mount Alexander Group have a second tanker. We’re not asking for a second tanker, we’re just asking for an Ultra Light, which would be an asset not just to our brigade, but to the whole group,” she said.
“They have done a risk assessment on the fire ridge, and in one of the modelling scenarios, hypothetically if the fire comes from the north, and then if there’s a wind change, it can take out the whole town.
“Not that a little ultra-light would stop that from happening, but if you can get in there and prevent it getting bigger or spreading until someone can get there, that can make a big difference,” she said.
Ms Parker said they had already managed to raise more than $90,000 through donations, more than half the amount the brigade needs to contribute towards the vehicle through VESEP.
“We only need $24,167 to contribute to VESEP grant and they pay $140,833. We’ve had that money sitting there ready to go for 10 years,” she said.
Outgoing Captain, now 4th Lieutenant, Adam Paine said the brigade needed the Ultra Light, which was small and agile and could carry 600 litres of water.
“They’re similar to what the forestry guys use,” he said.
“We’re still putting in the VESEP application, but we’re not foregoing the option of raising the rest ourselves. On a good year we can raise $10,000, so we’re more than willing to go halves.”
If you’d like to help the Taradale team raise the necessary funds for a second appliance, you can make a direct deposit to BSB 063517 Account 00901307 (donations above $2 are tax deductible and donation receipts are available on request).
You can also donate the proceeds from your cans and bottles processed at any the container deposit point to Taradale CFA.
To follow their progress, visit www.facebook.com/taradalecfa or www.instagram.com/cfataradale