Last Thursday was an amazing day for not only the city of Dubbo, but the entire electorate and regional NSW as a whole.
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Police and Emergency Services Minister David Elliott was in town to officially open the $23 million Rural Fire Service (RFS) Training Facility at Dubbo Regional Airport.
This facility is a great example of what can happen when different levels of government come together and work with agencies.
I know the facility, which rivals the current complex in Sydney, left Minister Elliott in awe and it is a great example of what can be done when significant infrastructure projects are undertaken in regional NSW.
Just a couple of hours later we went down the road from the RFS building and visited the new State Emergency Service/Volunteer Rescue Service facility.
While the charters of the SES and VRA are different, they now have a complex where they can store their equipment and bounce off each other when it comes to assisting our region.
They can not only share storage space, but also training facilities and given that they often come across quite confronting scenes in the course of their work, they have an additional layer of support through each other as well.
In between those openings, I took the Minister for a look at that planned site for the new Police Training Facility.
Assistant Commissioner Geoff McKechnie gave Minister Elliott a briefing on what the facility will bring to the region, and the chance to create an emergency services hub in the centre of NSW is something we should all be proud of.
Once the police facility is established we will have bases for all of these groups in close proximity to each other at Dubbo Regional Airport, and for that Dubbo Regional Council deserves a lot of credit.
They have put forward the land to make this a reality, and by having Dubbo as the hub we will have a constant stream of additional police and emergency service resources on hand should they be required in Dubbo or any location nearby.
Speaking of emergency services, it was great to have 21 teams in town for the Australian Road Rescue Organisation's championships at the weekend.
Aside from the Australian teams there were also delegations from New Zealand, Hong Kong and Vanuatu and it was a terrific chance to showcase our region to them.
Until next week, Dugald
