Victoria’s Country Fire Authority will keep volunteer crews riding ageing single-cab tankers for at least another decade, with the renewal program $55 million per year short of what Chief Executive Greg Leach told the Parliamentary Inquiry into Victoria’s 2026 Summer Fires was needed to hold the fleet age.
That is according to evidence Leach and CFA Chief Officer Jason Heffernan gave to the inquiry last week, with both confirming the authority is no longer turning over tankers at 20 years of age or pumpers at 15 as required under its renewal plan.
Leach told the inquiry the CFA needs $65 million a year to maintain the current fleet age — more than six times the $10 million annual commitment the state government has put up for the next decade.
The number of single-cab tankers in the fleet has also moved against the Department’s own books, with Leach revealing 802 in service, 175 more than the 627 figure given to Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearings just six months ago.
Single-cab tankers leave additional crew exposed to smoke, dust and heat in the open air, with the Liberal-National Opposition arguing the design is no longer fit for the deployments Victoria’s brigades face across regional plantation and native forest country.
Heffernan also admitted to the inquiry that staff shortages had produced “some deficiencies” in affected districts, with unfilled vacancies confirmed in District 22 at the time of January’s Longwood fire, although he could not provide a number. He also confirmed he had issued a “qualified attestation” of fire-season readiness to the Emergency Management Commissioner before summer, which was not made public.
Fire Services Implementation Monitor Niall Blair told the inquiry that the unfilled positions were “leaving vulnerabilities across the state,” whilst Victoria heads toward a state election in November.
It comes as Wood Central reported on Victoria’s diminished fire-response capacity since the 2024 close of native forestry, with the loss of skilled operators across timber-town country now compounding fleet ageing in rural brigades.
The Liberal-National Opposition has pushed regional emergency funding to the front of its November campaign, with Leader of The Nationals and Shadow Minister for Emergency Services, Danny O’Brien, telling the inquiry the ageing single-cab fleet would remain in service for another decade under the current funding plan.
“The ageing firefighting fleet will only get older under this government,” Mr O’Brien said, with the Coalition pledging to scrap the tax on volunteers and back community firefighters if it wins office.
