RFS training academy Dubbo: $5.6m extension approved

A first-of-its kind aviation centre of excellence at the state’s major NSW Rural Fire Service training academy will include cut-down aircraft and virtual reality to help protect the state from devastating bushfires.

Firefighters battling to save lives and protect communities across NSW will have a new weapon in their arsenal, with construction of a $5.6 million aviation centre of excellence expected to get underway early next year in Dubbo.

The development will be the first-of-its-kind for the NSW Rural Fire Service and form part of the organisation’s flagship training academy it the Dubbo Airport’s emergency services precinct.

Artist's impression of the NSW Rural Fire Service Aviation Centre of Excellence at Dubbo. Picture: Barnson

Stage one of the academy opened in June 2019 and the centre of excellence represents the second stage of the development, the NSW RFS training and doctrine director, Paul Seager, told The Dubbo News.

“The building will contain four aviation simulators, which are like cut-down aircrafts with audiovisual screens, with virtual reality where we can run candidates through simulated activities of all different kinds including using aircraft, use of radios, direction of aircraft in the air, gathering aerial intelligence and so on,” Mr Seager said.

“There’ll be another two training spaces to compliment what’s in the existing academy so when individuals aren’t in the simulators, there’ll be group training areas they can use as well.

“There’s an additional 27 rooms of accommodation.”

Stage one of the NSW RFS Training Academy in Dubbo was opened in June 2019. Picture: NSW RFS

At the existing academy there are 97 rooms to accommodate people from across the state who travel to Dubbo to undertake training and Mr Seager said the new rooms would help cater to growing demand for training.

“Much of the time the academy is fully utilised,” he said.

“It’s unique for the RFS. Obviously other agencies like NSW Police have their academy down at Goulburn, Fire and Rescue NSW have a training facility in Sydney, but for the NSW RFS this academy in Dubbo is our flagship for the state.”

Aerial RFS surveillance of the Sir Ivan fire which destroyed homes in the small village of Uarbry, 150km from Dubbo, on February 12, 2017. Picture: NSW Rural Fire Service.

Mr Seager said the centre of excellence development came about as a result of recommendations from a 2020 NSW Bushfire Inquiry which included a recommendation that “NSW needed to increase aviation training to have more aviation personnel available”.

“These are personnel who work both on the ground to co-ordinate aircraft movements and in the air for specific operational activities like air observance to determine where a fire has spread to, what the current fire behaviour is and what the possible downstream impacts might be,” he said.

The personnel to be trained at the centre of excellence also include air attack supervisors who direct other aircrafts in the air and act like “mobile air traffic controllers, tasking aircraft to drop retardant or organising for helicopters to drop bucket of water on a particular tree or site”, Mr Seager said.

Development approval has been granted and construction of the centre of excellence, which is being funded by the NSW Government, is expected to commence early in 2022.

Mr Seager said local organisations were heavily involved in progressing the estimated $5.6 million development, with a request for tenders likely to be issued in coming weeks.

“Barnson are doing the design so that’s local, Dubbo Regional Council are managing the project so it’s a local partnership with them which is really good,” he said.

An artist's impression of the NSW Rural Fire Service Aviation Centre of Excellence in Dubbo. Picture: Barnson

While training activities at the academy were currently suspended due to the Covid outbreak, Mr Seager revealed it was still being put to good use.

“A week after the lockdown the academy was stood back up again and we’re now hosting the Australian Defence Force health teams, NSW Police are running the emergency operations centre out of there, NSW Health is running the vaccination planning cell out of their for western NSW.

“We’ve got about 20 RFS people who have come to Dubbo to support the health operation, they’re doing food hamper deliveries, they’re helping with support for the testing and vaccination clinics, doing all sorts of things.

“We’ve gone from busy to empty and then back to busy in the space of about a week and I expect the academy will remain in use for the Covid operation probably until mid to late October based on government advice about vaccination rates and so on. When the current use finishes we’ll pick up training again and then run hard as much as we can in the lead up to the fire season.”