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Smoking Ceremony ahead of official opening presentation

CFA’s new home base for the Baw Baw and South Gippsland region has officially been opened, with the revamped District 9 Headquarters now a major regional support hub.

The purpose-built facility at 157 Queen St, Warragul is spread over two floors and features a new Incident Control Centre (ICC) to support major incidents in the future.

The building fit out was completed and commissioned in July 2023. In a special event today (July 29), more than 50 CFA dignitaries, staff, brigade members and agency counterparts gathered to celebrate the opening of the doors.

Following a tour of the multi-agency facility and a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony, Deputy Chairperson Tony Peake OAM provided an opening address and a proud declaration of residency for the South East community.

Deputy Chief Officer South East Region Trevor Owen was invited to speak and said by bringing everyone together in the one facility, the region is now in a better position to support CFA volunteers and brigades.

“For many years, District 9 has operated out of multiple facilities in both Warragul and Leongatha, so it is really pleasing to be more centrally and strategically located for our broader CFA members and staff that service West and South Gippsland communities” Trevor said.

“A state-of-the-art situational awareness system has been installed throughout the facility to monitor current weather, operational activity across Victoria and get a closer look within the ICC’s local area.”

Trevor said CFA now has the latest technology to retrieve and see real time mapping data from intelligence gathering aircraft and crews on the ground.

“Video feeds from our Fire Observation Aircraft and Remotely Piloted Aircraft System can also help the ICC with situational awareness on the fire ground and can identify where fire activity is occurring, which allow us to deploy appropriately,” Trevor said.

“We can also monitor weather conditions so we can identify whether our crews are in a safe area should there be any major changes, like gusty winds or lightning.”

CFA District and regional support staff will be on the ground floor, followed by the ICC above, while the facility also has capacity to host larger meetings and forums.

CFA invested around $1.68m from the Base Capital Works Program. The site was constructed to complement other CFA designs and layouts and has been leased long-term to the organisation.

The ICC has already seen some use earlier this year, managing the storm event that swept through the area in February, devastating parts of South Gippsland and the Strzelecki Ranges, in particular the Mirboo North community.

“Over a period of two weeks, the ICC was in operational use alongside a broad range of partner agencies and from all reports it performed well with a highly visual and collaborative workspace that supported a multiagency level 3 Incident Management Team,” Trevor said.