Mount Gellibrand Fire Tower: Lisa Neville waiting on CFA before considering fix
Victoria’s Emergency Services Minister has not completely ruled out funding the fix of a fire tower the CFA suddenly closed two weeks before summer, but she is waiting on one thing first.
VICTORIA’S Emergency Services Minister has indicated she is waiting for a report from the CFA before making any decisions about funding the fix of a fire tower that was closed just two weeks before summer in the high-fire danger area of Victoria’s Western Plains.
Locals were devastated to hear the CFA had marked the Mount Gellibrand Fire Tower unsafe to use last week, on the cusp of a “potentially really bad fire season”.
The CFA was warned in an engineer’s report in 2017 the tower required an upgrade or replacement but no action was taken.
Local Liberal MP Richard Riordan questioned Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville in Parliament today on whether funding was going to be available to fix the “vital tool”.
Ms Neville said she was up-to-date on the situation and was “waiting on the CFA” for further details.
“The CFA are still doing assessments about what they think, if it’s even possible to fix the tower and they have not yet come back to us about that,” Ms Neville said.
“They also assure me they’re in a good position, a strong position to ensure they have the adequate oversight of where risk may develop.
“The fire towers play an important role in that and that’s (Mt Gellibrand) just one of them. We have a number right across the state.”
Locals organised a rally at the tower on Friday and a petition has been launched that Mr Riordan will table in Parliament in a fortnight.
CFA Winchelsea group secretary Marianne Stewart told The Weekly Timesthe tower played an essential role in its firefighting response, with those manning the tower radioing in sightings.
“Most farmers around the region have listening sets,” she said. “Everybody is almost ready to roll before we get the alarm.”
Despite concerns, the CFA said in a statement last week that there would be no impact on the ability to “respond to emergencies and protect lives and property”.
It said there were other fire towers nearby, plans to supplement coverage using aerial detection flights, and mobile phones and other technology.
John Callahan, who organised the building of the tower in 1978 and was an air observer with the CFA for nearly 60 years, said towers were still critical.
“You can’t have an aircraft up all the time, all day and can’t have it up in severe wind and at night,” he said.
“The best aspect of (the tower) is that it all looks up all gullies in the Otways that no one else can see up in case of fire.
“It’s used regularly by other towers to cross reference any sighting they have.”
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