28 Feb 2017 Mountain Views Mail Healesville, Melbourne (Regional Changes South) by Jesse Graham UPPER Yarras SES crew will have new equipment, a smoother driveway and an enclosed training area established, following a Victorian Government grant announcement earlier this month. On Friday 17 February, Northern Victoria Region MP Jaclyn Symes announced successful grant aplications for CFA and SES crews across the region. Under the grants program, the Upper Yarra unit will receive $6280 for 33 metres of barbed wire around a chainlink fence to enclose a road rescue training area. The unit will also receive $22,727 for laying asphalt at their unit headquarters driveway and building and $1349 for remote lighting equipment. They will also share in a $39,900 grant with Healesville SES for further operation equipment, training and a lighting platform to be shared between the two units. Unit spokesman Steve Green said the grant announcement was fantastic, and would help the SES to run road rescue training, where members simulate incidents with donated cars. We have problems with having somewhere to put our cars we train on for road accidents we need somewhere to put them in an enclosure, he said. It (the fence) keeps the public out, so we can put them in a locked enclosure there. And the driveway sealed around the building we have so much dust blowing in there all the time, so were constantly cleaning it. Itll make a big improvement to keep it tidy and dirt free. Mr Green said the lighting platform would allow the SES to set up lighting at incidents separately from their trucks, allowing them to leave and attend other incidents. The grants came through the Emergency Services Volunteer Sustainability Grants program. Ms Symes said the grants, which totalled $500,000, would help CFA and SES crews to keep doing their crucial work. This is great news for our emergency services in country Victoria and I congratulate all our grant recipients and hope that it assists them in the outstanding job they do in keeping the community safe, she said. Caption Text: The grants will help Upper Yarra SES volunteers like Russell Wulf and Bob Sanders. 138810 Licensed by Copyright Agency. You may only copy or communicate this work with a licence.