Redlands rural brigade captain, Phil Penny addressed councillors at this week’s Federation Council meeting and spoke of continued frustration over a lack of support from the Albury-based Rural Fire Service.
At a meeting on July 30, 48 volunteers from 14 brigades, representatives from RFS and Federation and Berrigan councils met to discuss the issues.
A motion was unanimously passed to create a standalone zone, to end the voluntary arrangement with Greater Hume region, and reopen the Corowa Rural Fire Service Centre on a full-time basis.
The issues mirrored those raised in a similar meeting at Rennie in 2023.
This week, Capt. Penny told councillors a newly appointed RFS district manager was “having a go, but not much was changing”.
An RFS spokesperson said the concept of uncoupling the Federation and Berrigan areas was first raised in 2023.
“After which the Service developed and enacted a plan to enhance support for brigades across the area, these changes continued to be reviewed,” the spokesperson said.
“These arrangements included having the Corowa centre opened one day per week.”
Three full-time positions to support the zone, funded by Federation and Berrigan councils, are based in Albury.
Capt. Penny said the Corowa office only saw the RFS from Albury for five hours a week and no longer acted as an equipment store.
“It’s hard to establish good communication,” he said.
“Multiple times our fire trucks have not had yearly inspections and ran out of registration.
“At our most recent AGM at Redlands brigade, the attending RFS officer was asked when our trucks were due for inspection and service.
“His response was ‘we’ll get back to you next week’; that was a month ago.”
The Corowa facility, which is owned by Federation Council, was recently refurbished at a cost of $200,000.
Capt. Penny said it was upgraded to a very high standard, completely functional and “a fit for purpose building we should be very proud of”.
While the facility is large uninhabited, a working group formed at the July 30 meeting met last week.
Capt. Penny said correspondence with RFS was not favourable and volunteers expected a battle.
“This proposal is black and white,” he said.
“Local fire brigades need better support with local headquarters … a boots on ground operation.
Moving forward, Capt. Penny said support from Federation Council was needed with the adoption of its RFS service level agreement with the proposed rezoning.
He said Federation Council chief executive, Adrian Butler was part of the working group, “certainly all over it … and understands it very well”.
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