Bingara Fire Station Update

Published on 08 August 2025

Leeah and I met with Zone Commander Superintendent, Tom Cooper and Duty Commander, Matt Goldman from NSW Fire and Rescue who informed us that there is a proposal that they are going to downgrade our Bingara Fire Station and truck, they are calling it "Tanker Strategy". This means they can respond to a fire with a crew of 2 instead of 4 in a pumper (the truck we have now) we would then be relying on backup to come from Warialda (a minimum of 30 minutes away) or Inverell, even further away. We would also be relying on RFS for backup. I find this very disheartening and detrimental to the town of Bingara and surrounds. I know we have a low number of call outs but there will always be that one time. We have previously held community meetings, NSW Fire & Rescue have had many information days, they have done letterbox drops, if you know of any other ways we can recruit local firefighters or anyone that would like to be one please ask them to get in contact ASAP. We were told we have two choices downgrade or close up. This will be disastrous. I am going to speak with Peakhill who have the same system that they are proposing to implement in Bingara. I will also table this issue at a Disaster Management Meeting in Inverell on 14 August 2025.

Cr Tiffany Galvin, Mayor