Construction has begun on the new Acton Emergency Services Station – first announced three years ago, with a completion date of last year. The ACT Government states it will open late next year.

The joint fire and ambulance station, to be built at the intersection of Clunies Ross Street and Parkes Way, will serve the new sections of Woden and Molonglo Valley as well as the city, Mick Gentleman, ACT Minister for Police and Emergency Services, said.

The $40 million facility would ensure the ACT’s increasing population (expected to reach half a million by 2027) had appropriate access to emergency services, Mr Gentleman said. It would also provide emergency services staff with the most up-to-date infrastructure to support their work and wellbeing.

The station will house an aerial pumping appliance and aerial platform, and Australia’s first plug-in hybrid electric fire vehicle, purchased this year.

The station would allow emergency services to maintain and improve their “nation-leading response times” in the city, an area that would be an increasing focus as high-rise and infill increased the density of the population, agreed emergency services officials – Jason Jones, ACT Emergency Services Agency (ESA) Acting Commissioner; Matthew Mavity, Chief Officer of ACT Fire & Rescue; and Howard Wren ASM, Chief Officer of the ACT Ambulance Service.

“Upon opening, the station will be a direct and immediate benefit for our community,” Mr Jones said.

New privacy and dignity arrangements will mean a more diverse workforce, Mr Mavity said.

“Traditional fire stations were probably more akin to a footy shed. We had change areas, locker areas, that didn’t cater for gender diversity very well.”

But the station, like other recently built facilities, will have changing areas or dormitories with lockable doors and ensuites to cater for privacy and dignity.

On Monday, a smoking ceremony at the site marked the beginning of construction – “a milestone” for the Canberra community and emergency services alike, Mr Gentleman said.

But some, impatient with delays to the long-awaited station, might consider the milestone has dragged as heavily as a millstone.

The government announced in August 2020, through its Enterprise Agreement with the United Firefighters Union (UFU) ACT Branch, that the emergency services station would be operational by 2022–23.

But at the start of this year, Greg McConville, national secretary of the UFU of Australia and secretary of the UFU ACT Branch, wanted to know why nothing had been built on the site chosen. He said the UFU had been told the station would be completed by the end of 2021.

In response, Mr Mavity stated that the fire station was not built because the timeframe in the Enterprise Agreement was ambitious (less than 18 months), and it was further held up by COVID, supply chain issues, and three years of rain.

Mr Gentleman added yesterday that a lack of material, hold-up in delivering materials, and slowdown from suppliers of infrastructure (Evoenergy and ActewAGL), had delayed the project.