Construction site to become HQ for large-scale emergency response

The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) fit-for-purpose headquarters is being built on Bridge Street, West Tamworth, to help localise and streamline disaster response operations within the North Western Zone.

The zone, which includes Tamworth, Armidale, Gunnedah, Glen Innes, Moree and Inverell, has been operating out of a temporary facility near the Tamworth airport since the separate zone was established in February 2023.

North Western Zone commander chief superintendent Tammy Shepley told the Leader the Level 3 Incident Control Centre, which is being built on the bottom floor of the re-developed Workies Club, will be capable of controlling multi-agency incident management operations during local emergencies.

Superintendent Shepley said it will provide on-the-ground and close support to the community, which wasn't in place before the new zone was established.

"It will be one of the premier incident control centres for the NSW SES," she said.

Once complete, the control centre will be the second biggest in the state, following the headquarters in Wollongong.

The centre will include open plan office space for preparedness planning, emergency response operations, and recovery management.

Training and community engagement opportunities will also be a feature of the new centre to help ensure the residents and volunteers are prepared and educated about disasters and risks, Superintendent Shepley said.

The Northwest Zone staff has significantly grown during the last 12 months. Four full-time staff members has now grown to 26, with a majority of vacancies filled by local people.

"We've managed to draw a really good cohesive team which is all motivated to provide support to communities and our volunteers within the zone," Superintendent Shepley said.

In the last year, units across the Northwest zone have responded to 930 calls for flood and storm incidents, land rescues and road crashes.

Formline Group has been engaged to do an end-to-end fit out of the headquarters, after working with the NSW SES and state government to design and construct the centre.

A spokesperson for Formline Group told the Leader this development will provide the community with a "great sense of confidence" seeing an investment of this nature happening in the Tamworth community.

"There has been a real passion for this project from the outset because of its significance to this whole Northwestern Regional area," they said.

The new control centre has been funded by the NSW Government, which committed $11.7 million to establish the new headquarters in Tamworth, and another in Goonellabah as part of the North Eastern Zone.

The new headquarters is expected to be complete in July 2024.