MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire councillors have approved a land lease expansion of the Main Ridge CFA brigade to allow the installation of a second water tank, boosting the brigade’s emergency response capacity.
The decision, made at the council’s 2 September meeting, comes in response to growing concerns over water availability for fire callouts in the region with the nearest reticulated water supply being in Browns Rd in Boneo, near Graceland Rd, some 12km away. Currently the brigade operates with one tank onsite, however the lease expansion would permit a second tank to be placed within the brigade’s grounds at Main Creek Rd in Main Ridge.
The council entered a 15-year lease with the Country Fire Authority on 1 April 2014 which allows the brigade to have a fire station and a single tank. But a shire report published this month said the size of the current tank was “insufficient to service the surrounding area” which was highlighted by a fire in September 2024 in Main Ridge.
“To provide a sufficient service to the community, the CFA need to install a second tank, however the most suitable location is outside their current leased area,” it said. “By increasing the leased area and allowing the provision of a new water tank, it will provide the Main Ridge CFA tankers to access water and allow them to return to firefighting operations more quickly than they are currently able.”
An additional area of about 75sqm is needed for the proposed tank location, bringing the total lease area to 540sqm for the brigade, equating to the size of about two tennis courts. A mature black wattle tree would need to be removed to make way for the new tank, but three new peppermint gums would be planted.
Councillors voted unanimously at their meeting to amend the lease so that a second tank could be installed. Cr David Gill said the move was essential for community safety. “The people that volunteer for the CFA all over the peninsula are to be congratulated for their services to the community,” he said.
“They don’t always have the right equipment. They don’t always have the fundraising or the grants that they really require, but they get by anyway and they do their services to help us by risking their lives in our community.”
Cr Cam Williams agreed while highlighting the critical need for water access for Main Ridge. “If you’re fighting a fire and you need to go all the way from Main Ridge to Boneo and then back up, that’s a big chunk of time and a lot of land can burn, a lot of houses can burn in that amount of time, so this is definitely needed and hopefully it gets put in the ground before this summer,” he said.
First published in the Mornington News – 9 September 2025
