 Very nice. Ah, there you go. Thank you. Thank you very much. Very well. Thank you now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, honour guests, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the main REH rural fibre gate I would like warmly to welcome His Excellency the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, General the Honourable Sir Peter Kosko, I would also like to welcome the Honourable Kim Wells, Member of Parliament, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for Push Fire Response. I wish to give a special welcome to all those here who have been our sponsors, generously donating amounts large and small that have been crucial in building and equipping a station that can make all our needs, making the generosity of the Government of the CFA even more effective than the final product. Lastly, I wish to thank the members of our community who have come along today to support us in this new beginning and to take pride in the partnership that makes an effective CFA of local volunteers working with the community. Now, with great pleasure, I call upon the Governor-General formally to open our main bridge fire station. I would like to thank John's acknowledgement of the ancestral traditional owners of land, the Grinron people, my own respects and pay my respects to their elders, past and present and to any other elders of other nations or tribes who are here today. I thank John and Ann for their welcome outside, their hosting today. It's really a joyous and important occasion, joyous for me and that I get to see a community expressing itself in that great volunteerism which characterises Australia. The volunteerism, of course, through the main bridge rural fire brigade where so many of the people who participate do so as an additional parcel in their lives, it's not the main thing they do. So from time to time it might well be the most important thing they do. But the volunteerism I'm talking about is the philanthropic efforts such as you'll see on the back of this program. Scores, probably hundreds of names in there from individual philanthropists to businesses and they describe a geographic area which is of course amongst the main bridge responsibility but as we know, philanthropy knows, no geographic boundaries and I'm very sure some people from far afield have what I'm sure they contribute. All of Australia holds its breath during bushfire season and it's not long before somewhere or another in this great wide round land fire comes to ravage, hold communities, rural economy, putting lives, livestock and livelihoods at risk. Like so many other Australians when those terrible bushfires occurred in another place but not so different to here, not so long ago I was horrified at the scenes of devastation and the impact of fire and its ravages on people's well-being, their optimism for the future. But like all of you, I was uplifted to see those hundreds, indeed thousands of people who rally to stop the fires, to divert them, to save property, to save livelihoods and of course to save lives. And like you, we're all impelled in the aftermath to dig deep, to do whatever we could, not only to help those whose lives have been so drastically affected, but to show with the same fortitude in a different way the sort of resolution, determination, indomitable spirit of the firefighters who put their own lives on the line and who will do so every time there is a need. I was at a memorial service in St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne in the aftermath of the shooting down of the Dutch aircraft, of the Malaysian aircraft over the Ukraine. And at this memorial service we were extending our condolences to all the bereave, the vast majority of whom were in St Patrick's. And in amongst all the solemnity of that service there were two songs that were sung in a war modern style, they weren't hymns, they were done by some brilliant young singers and string quartet and a person on the guitar and another on the keyboard. And if you're watching the service you might recall, I won't describe the first song, it was beautiful and very evocative, but the second and last song sung right at the end of the service was a version of the very popular Australian ballad, I Am Australian. It was a version of that ballad that was done in the aftermath of the Victorian who's fires. And it was done in slow tempo and it was replicated there in the cathedral, sung by a lady called Katie Noon beautifully. And the last line I think epitomises the Australianness that is represented by the CFA, by the Royal Fire Brigades, by people like the Main Ridge Royal Fire Brigade. And it's finished on this note, it says, in that one which would finish, I Am You Are We Are Australian, it said, you're not alone, we are with you, we are Australian. And that says it all, and that says what we are here today. To inaugurate, to celebrate and rededicate ourselves as a community, and these men and women who will operate right at the forefront of the protection of the community, come the inevitable next time they're called to save lives and property as a result of a bush fire. I had a prepared speech here, you just heard what I wanted to say. I think it's a magnificent facility, nothing less for the people who will need to operate here to store their kit, to order, to house all of their equipment, to train, to turn it up for training and to come here before and after operational missions to fight fires. I'll come here to get their new orders, to refresh themselves, to be given provisions by the indomitable people such as the CWA and then go out again. They deserve nothing less than this magnificent facility. So it's now with great pleasure I declare the Main Ridge Volunteer Royal Fire Station open. For that introduction, His Excellency, we are deeply honoured to have you here today. I'd also like to acknowledge our other special guests today, Kim Wells, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Martin Hickson, Minister for Education. What a wonderful day, an exciting day for Main Ridge Fire Brigade. And it's my pleasure to be here to witness this official opening of this new station. The Main Ridge Royal Fire Brigade has a long and proud history, having formed in 1945 and served its community faithfully since that time. Back in those days, the only equipment firefighters had was NAPSAC sprayers and Army bootbeaters. Thankfully, firefighting has come a long way since then. With this 21 strong member, Volunteer Brigade, continuing to provide a vital service to this community. Today, this small but strong Volunteer Brigade serves its community faithfully responding to a range of incidents including fires, car accidents and other events. Over the years, the Brigade has responded to fires in this area. The most recent was the 1997 Arthur Seat Firewood Strait in the Homes. But as His Excellency mentioned, this Brigade also provides vital support statewide when there are major incidents. And that included Ash Wenders Day and more recently Black Saturday Wing Crews from this Brigade assisted with the fires around Ariesville and King Lake. This new station we're opening today sits opposite the site of the original Main Ridge and is the third station local firefighters have utilised. It is more spacious and both three engine bays with drive-through access, car parking, an office, multi-purpose room, kitchen. And why don't I add toilets, because that's one of the things when you've driven a long way to come here that you look for. I'm always pleased to find toilet supply stations. I also offer our thanks to the government for their financial support in helping to build this new station. There are a number of new stations that have been building this for you here in and we offer our thanks particularly to the government. This station has cost $789,000 and I too would like to add my thanks to the local community and to the Brigade itself for their fundraising that's already $1,000 raised to help make sure this was a first-class facility. I'm confident this new fire station will further boost Brigade's firefighting capability and see them protect the community for many years to come. To all CFA members present today, I thank you for your invaluable service and I hope you enjoy your own station. Thanks also to the families who give you your support. Lastly, we are entering the fire season. A day like today is a stark reminder of just how quickly summer has come upon us even though technically it's still spring. Please place a high value on your safety through this season. Look after yourself and your mates. Thank you very much. Thank you Mr. President. And now for one of the heroes of the hour without whose vision, sheer persistence and boldness we would very likely have neither this station nor the honour of having it open by no less than our nation's vice-legal head of state. I call upon Mainridge CFA Captain Dian Trapeit to respond on behalf of our Brigade and our local community. The new staff boy will be able to speak this, but I'll make it up at my go. Good afternoon, Your Excellency. Other distinguished guests and members of the Mainridge community. What a wonderful day it is for Mainridge to have this wonderful facility and to have it open for the Excellency, Sir Peter Cosgrove. And I thank you very much for you accepting my invitation to come. I would like to thank the Shire. We put a proposal to the Shire about three years ago to obtain this parcel of land to build our new station on. If it wasn't for our councillors who all voted unanimously that we could have had this parcel, we would have still been on the old site. And it's a wonderful piece of land and I'm just so very grateful for the Shire for their vision and foresight to give us a parcel of land. Now, just to give you a bit of background, which has already been done, but after Gluck sat down, the government decided to give 140 new stations out around country Victoria. We had some wonderful people within CFA who fought long and hard to get Mainridge a new station. And I'm glad they fought so hard because this is the evidence of their work. So without those workers and those officers within the CFA, this would not have happened also. So thank you very much. I don't want to go into naming each individual one of you, but you know who you are and we are very, very grateful. The CFA had about 59,000 volunteer, 5,000 gay people, 1,800 permanent staff, and they have 1,200 odd stations. So we are very lucky to be part of a very well-organised and very professional organisation of the CFA. It's not roughly what my speech is, but I'm living a little bit. I practice it at three o'clock this morning. Next Saturday. And I'm a bit hoarse now because I was hunting it out. At three o'clock, there's no one there to have a chook stone to give what I said. I'm also very grateful to all the local residents here in Main Beach who donated. If it wasn't for your contributions to our extension, half of you guys are sitting in the part we paid for and unfortunately, the other half are sitting in the government side. If it wasn't for your support, this would not have happened and it is a station which will give us 50 years plus of wonderful facilities to size. We have issues with truck size. Every year trucks get bigger, stations tend to get smaller. So we have so much room in here for a future expansion if we want different firefighting times as well. The better the equipment, we have the room in which to put it in. So I am very grateful to all the local residents who have supported us, which lead me onto the community groups. All the charities, the service club, the corporate sponsors have been brilliant. They have given us so much extra which allows us to have the nicer things within the station. So if it wasn't for the corporate people, also this has been very humbling to think how much they have given from such a wide scope of people. Finally, the fire season is jumping upon us. It's a month earlier than normal. So go home, clean up, prepare. They like the driveways. They'll have the trucks to come in. Have a fire plan and a fire plan which all your family knows what's meant to happen, where it's meant to happen. And if you're going to leave, leave early. Don't wait for the death knock because it makes the road terribly congested. So fire plan, prepare and leave early to need to. And my final word is have a happy and safe fire through Christmas. And thank you very much.