Winnindoo CFA facing six-year wait for new station due to ‘shameful’ bureaucratic delays

CFA volunteers in one of the state’s most fire prone areas could be waiting six years for a promised new station after the project was hit with new “embarrassing” bureaucratic delays.

CFA volunteers in one of the state’s most fire prone areas could be waiting six years for a promised new station after it was hit with fresh “embarrassing” and “shameful” bureaucratic delays.

Local volunteers servicing the Winnindoo community, nestled between Rosedale and Heyfield in Gippsland, are still being forced to work out of a tin shed with a porta-potty out the back.

The Herald Sun in April revealed troubles facing the project, which was first announced in 2020.

It can now be revealed that same project – which the government has spruiked as being “critical” to “ensure the station in Winnindoo is ready for [the] current and future fire season” – has come into more trouble.

Captain of the Winnindoo Fire Brigade Ton Van Dijk said they were frustrated. Picture: Ian Currie

Frustrated volunteers were initially told the station may not be complete until late 2025, however it now appears that time frame has blown out further.

Initial delays were blamed on Covid restrictions, supply issues and broader cost blowouts.

The Allan government has conceded the agency tasked with the station build is working through the latest troubles but refused to put a timeline on when it will be built.

It means volunteers will face the prospect of yet another summer working out of a 40-year-old tin shed that doesn’t have toilets, change rooms or a kitchen.

Winnindoo Fire Brigade captain Ton Van Dijk said it shouldn’t be this hard to get the relatively simple build done.

“We are bloody frustrated. It’s just shameful,” he said.

“We try and get new recruits to the brigade but would you want to be volunteering out of a shed? It’s pretty ordinary.

“It can’t be that much work to build a station. It shouldn’t take this long.”

Gippsland South Nationals MP Danny O’Brien said the delays have reached “way past embarrassing”.

Lieutenant Brad Missen , Secretary Hughie Stag and Captain Ton Van Dijk inside the Winnindoo Fire Brigade station. Picture: Ian Currie

“It’s yet another fire season that the volunteers will be left to put up with substandard facilities – no toilet, no kitchen and no change facilities,” he said.

“This is such an insult to our hard working CFA volunteers who have been campaigning for a new station for years. They were overjoyed when the funding announcement came but now they’ve been severely let down.

“Maybe if they were members of the UFU or CFMEU they’d get better attention from this Labor government?”

A CFA spokeswoman said designs for the Winnindoo station are being progressed by the Community Safety Building Authority.

“The funding for the replacement station was announced in October 2020 under the CFA Capability Funding package,” she said.

“Further advice would be a matter for CSBA.”

A Victorian government spokeswoman conceded there had been a delay which is being worked through.

“We are continuing to work with the Country Fire Authority on the Winnindoo Fire Station so that it meets the needs of local volunteers,” she said.

“The Winnindoo community is well-served in case of emergency by its own brigade and surrounding brigades in Rosedale, Heyfield, Cowwarr and Toongabbie.”

Originally published as Winnindoo CFA facing six-year wait for new station due to ‘shameful’ bureaucratic delays