Emergency operations centre doubles in size after $2 million fit-out

EMERGENCY services will have a new space to co-ordinate their response to a natural disaster or emergency situation at the police headquarters in Berrimah

CCTV operator Kevin Carmody at the new operations centre. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford

EMERGENCY services will have a new space to co-ordinate their response to a natural disaster or emergency situation at the police headquarters in Berrimah.

The emergency operations centre has doubled in size to accommodate up to 70 people from a range of agencies, including police, NT Emergency Services, welfare and education and weather forecasters.

The new Territory Emergency Operations Centre at the Peter McAulay Centre was opened by Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford

Senior forecaster at the Darwin Bureau of Meteorology, Sally Cutter, at the new Territory Emergency Operations Centre. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford

The new Territory Emergency Operations Centre at the Peter McAulay Centre ... from left, planning officer Annette Turner Duggan, operations officer Mark Fishlock, logistics officer Brian Hennessy, safety officer Mark Cunnington and incident controller Robert Evans. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford

The fit-out cost $2 million, with Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker stating the funds came from within the existing NT Police budget.

Work was completed within five weeks to ensure it was up and running before the cyclone season kicked off.

Mr Chalker said the La Nina weather pattern – bringing with it a heightened chance of a cyclone – was also reason to ensure the facility was up and running as soon as possible.

He said the old emergency operations centre had not been updated since the 1980s and was well out of date.

“The pandemic certainly brought to the fore that the old one was beyond its use-by date,” he said.

“The size of it alone just made the ability to have enough people in there very, very limited, hence the reason that we needed to expand, and we need to expand quickly.”

At the moment the emergency operations centre responding to the pandemic is based at the Hidden Valley Motorsport Complex.

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Mr Chalker said the COVID-19 operation would move to the new purpose-built facility in March – once the bulk of the cyclone season had passed.

“Having this facility here to have the capability, all in house, is one that we desperately need,” he said.

Mr Chalker said the room had been set up to ensure there was 1.5m spacing betwe

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