20/05/2026
From Weekly Times 20 May 2026
Years of delays and cost blowouts in building new CFA stations by the Allan government’s Community Safety Building Authority has prompted calls to hand construction back to the CFA.
New CFA stations at Hoddles Creek, the Basin, Raywood, Leitchville, Keysborough and Kinglake West that were first promised in 2020 are yet to be built.
Meanwhile construction that has only just started on stations promised six years ago has blown out to more than $3m each, on the back of CSBA contracting legal firms to check land purchases and contracts, designers, quantity and building surveyors, cultural heritage assessments and its own administrative costs.
Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria chief executive Adam Barnett said: “Cost overruns, delays and out-of-control consultants from Melbourne strip precious money from CFA station builds and eats into the money available for other stations.
“We are building less stations with more money. On some estimates, the waste and cost overruns for every three stations could almost fund an entire new station.”
The CSBA took over construction of stations from the CFA in August 2022. But CFA insiders say cost blowouts and delays prompted head office to request the government hand back control of constructing at least the most basic 1A two-bay stations.
But rather than agreeing to CFA headquarters’ request the Allan government decided last December to merge the CSBA with the corruption-exposed Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority, in charge of the state’s Big Build projects.
The move alarmed firefighters, with Mr Barnett warning costs would surge even further, at a time when “there’s not enough money to go around”, causing further delays.
“It’s almost as though the government thought they weren’t wasting enough with the CSBA, so they’ve handed the work of over to the Big Build authority,” Mr Barnett said.
The government’s VIDA bureaucrats are pushing the cost of new stations up even further, pushing for the installation of solar panels and the capacity to charge electric vehicles.
In announcing the start of work on the Winnindoo CFA station last week, which was first promised in 2020, Labor MP for Eastern Victoria Tom McIntosh said it would include solar panels and be wired to ensure it was “ready for future electric vehicle charging”.
CFA sources say the final cost of the Winnindoo station would come close to $3.1m, once construction, design, legal and administrative costs were included.
Winnindoo captain Ton van Dijk said: “We never asked for solar panels (but) if we want the state to go broke, then we’re going to go broke quick.”
Mr van Dijk said NSW RFS was building stations for $950,000, while his brigade’s new home had been caught up in layer upon layer of bureaucracy and unnecessary costs.
Another CFA member involved in station builds said “like anything this government does, the bureaucratic process makes life difficult for brigades”.
One of the worst examples of construction delays involves the Riddells Creek station, which local MP Mary-Anne Thomas first promised a week before the 2018 state election.
Funding was then committed in the 2019-20 budget, but the station is yet to be built, despite undergoing design, legal and planning work.
Emergency Services Minister Vicki Ward’s office said: “The CFA is stronger, better funded and better resourced under a Labor Government.
“Since 2022, we have delivered 13 new CFA stations, with 11 in the pipeline and another 9 funded in this year’s Budget.”
But Mr Barnett said “CFA station builds must be handed back to CFA to be managed more efficiently and under the watchful eye of volunteers who will ensure every dollar is put to best use”.
“Given the ire in the community around the government’s new emergency services tax, it is incumbent on government to ensure every cent of taxpayers money is treated with the respect it deserves,” he said.
In 2023, the CSBA spent $745,239 contracting a “principal” consultant to design the Kinglake West, Hoddles Creek, Clyde and Riddells Creek CFA stations, another $908,000 for legal advice on land purchases for stations, $593,285 on building and quantity surveyors, plus $136,435 on an archaeological excavation at the Basin CFA station site.
These costs come on top of construction contracts that for the Clyde station, which is only now being built, came in at $3,684,427.
Opposition emergency services spokesman Danny O’Brien said “these delays and cost blowouts have become symptomatic of Labor’s mismanagement of our finances and it’s hurting CFA volunteers and the communities they protect”.
