The Mount McKenzie community will soon be further equipped to fight fires in the area thanks to the foresight of the town’s Hall Management Committee.
Grant funding has assisted the Mount McKenzie Hall Inc. to realise their community fire fighting tank project and they now await the appropriate approvals from The Barossa Council.
The group’s treasurer, Mr Phillip Earl said there is a severe lack of community water in the region and cited dam storage and dropping bore water levels.
“The Cudlee Creek fires got me thinking about how we would respond to such an event and the key is water availability to our community,” said Phillip.
“We have seen the change in climate and we have experienced pretty catastrophic events - I looked at the resources that we have and realised we have got to be better prepared if we want to look after our community.”
Due to COVID sidelining the Hall’s fundraising opportunities, the Committee submitted a funding proposal for Council assistance.
Last year, Council agreed to contribute $11,292 with an additional $3,000 from Council’s community grants fund.
Phillip said the total cost of the project exceeds the grant amount and the shortfall will come from hall funds.
The significant roof area will capture the rainwater delivering it into the nearby 160kl fire fighting tank for storage.
“The tank location will allow the CFS 13,000 litre tankers to fill and we have separate access for farm fire units to refill as well,” said Phillip.
Phillip said having the community fire fighting tank in the area will give a degree of comfort.
“We understand living in a rural area that we can’t always expect CFS and other volunteers to come if there’s a problem,” said Phillip
“We are so pleased that we are able to put something in that is on our wish list.”