Jessica Micallef
The Sunbury SES has a new “state-of-the-art“ training room facility.
A portable building was installed at the Sunbury headquarters last month, which will be used to train and recruit new SES members.
Volunteer Jarrod Bell said the training spaces and facilities had been “woefully inadequate“ to accommodate the nearly 100 SES volunteers.
“When I first joined the service 10 years ago, we had about 30 volunteers and now we have just under 100 so we have more than doubled in size,“ he said.
“Our training room was just too small.“
The SES applied for a state government Pick My Project grant and was awarded with $200,000 in 2018 to build a new training facility.
Mr Bell said SES members reached out to Jayco to put together a portable building.
“We always looked at doing a portable design that gave us the flexibility to move it in the future,“ he said.
“When the building is complete, it will triple our available training space, it will allow us to run state-of-the-art conferences, there will be audio visual facilities so we can run presentations and Zoom training sessions.“
The new building will also be used by local community groups and organisations, including Sunbury Festival, the Sunbury Blue Light Disco committee and the St John Ambulance Sunbury division.
“In the past, we have had these groups walk through our motor rooms which has a slight occupational health and safety issue,“ Mr Bell said.
“With this new facility, it means that will have a dedicated facility to meet.“
The site’s motor bay room is also getting extended, with construction expected to be completed in a few months.
“It absolutely will revolutionise and change the way we train, how we respond to emergencies and how we meet as both an emergency service but as a community service group,“ Mr Bell said.
“With the extension of the building and the new training room, it will make us an SES training hub for the north west of Melbourne.
