Opinion & Perspectives
2 May, 2026
OPINION: Funding secured, but how long’s the wait now?
"So I say to you Ms Ward, I hope to see you at the sod turning if you can finally manage come up the highway to Charlton. Let’s lock in something sooner rather than later."
A DAY we’ve been working towards has finally come.
Charlton Fire Brigade can celebrate a win it’s been waiting five years for - it has funding for a new CFA station.
But that’s just it - the wait isn’t over yet.
Because if anyone knows what a wait feels like, it’s the Charlton Fire Brigade.
Five years seems to be the magic number when it comes to local CFA crews waiting for much-needed facilities and equipment.
Five years ago, Charlton its new 2020 Iveco Eurocargo Tanker, replacing the 34-year-old Isuzu Tanker.
And while this was a welcome addition to the brigade’s arsenal, it wouldn’t fit in their 95-year-old Halliday Street shed.
At the same time, the Serpantine Fire Brigade was facing a similar plight as they waited five years from funding to the opening of their new station.
And since that time, the Charlton brigade’s pleas to be heard has fallen on deaf ears.
While Emergency Services minister Vicki Ward maintains she has “spoken with the Charlton captain” - of which she can’t call him by his name and has referred to him as ‘the mechanic’ - Mr Walsh says he has only ever received an email from her.
And even in that email, Charlton was promised by both Ms Ward and the CFA that it was “a priority”.
Even still, the pocket of land that was secured in 2022 has sat bare.
And when asked simply if she had ever been to see the station to see what the Charlton and surrounding brigades have to deal with every time they’re called out to a fire - she had not.
She has not travelled the 290km from inner Melbourne to see the lack of changing facilities, the time it takes the members to get the truck from Walsh Motors down the road before they can even start the journey to wherever that fire may be.
So I say to you Ms Ward, I hope to see you at the sod turning if you can finally manage come up the highway to Charlton.
Let’s lock in something sooner rather than later.
Read More: Local