 G'day I'm Ewan Ferguson, Chief Officer of CFA. I've just spent today touring part of Southern Metro, Regenate with the staff and some of the volunteers down here. I've had a terrific day. We started off by looking around the Noble Park and Keesborough area. I had looked through some of the Daninoong industrial area, then moved on to the Morning to Peninsula, travelled through Frankston South, had a look at the Fuse Hazard from Sweetwater Creek and had a briefing on how that's been dealt with in engaging with the community about the hazard. We went on to Moorinton Fire Station where we had Morning Tea with the staff and the volunteers. Very impressed by the morale of the troops there. It was really good to see how positive they were about the future and about their pride in delivering services to Morning to Peninsula and the Moorinton community. We then went on to Mt Martha, Dramana, Blair Gowrie. We had a look at the satellite station. Had a good look at some of the problems with access and egress, particularly accessed by firefighting vehicles over summer. And whilst it wasn't a summer's day, we got a first-hand look at how some of the major arterial roads here become clogged up very quickly, just in a normal day without an incident. And we discussed plans for traffic management if there was a major incident that occurred on the Morning to Peninsula, particularly the western part of the Morning to Peninsula. Particularly impressed by the fact that there's a collaborative plan in place with District 7 to commandeer the ferry coming over from the Bellarine Peninsula and put District 7 firefighting appliances onto the ferry to support district date if that's required. So that was great. We went on to Rosebud Fire Station, had lunch with the on-shift crew there, and there were about a half dozen volunteers who also attended. We had a terrific lunch, again very impressed by the camaraderie and the focus of the team there. Both the staff and the volunteers are getting along very well and very focused. And that was evident through the fundraising that the Rosebud Brigade has done, sufficient to build a new pumper, a pumper 2 on an Aveco Cabochassi. This is in effect a medium pumper, very impressed at the design and the quality of the build and it's something that CFA needs to have a look at in the development of a standardised medium pumper prototype which we're looking at building this financial year. We then went up to Arthur's Seat looking at the risks there and Petty Schmidt gave a vivid description of how that fire progressed and the consequences of that fire and the planning which is underway at the moment for a potentially another busy fire season. And we also had a discussion about the plans for a new gondola and how CFA needs to prepare if that then takes effect. We then went on through Red Hill into the Hastings area. We inspected externally the major hazard facilities there, Blue Scopes Steel and the Port area. This is an area that the state government has signalled for future infrastructure development and CFA is already starting to plan how we would anticipate the development of the Port area and the sea based risks that that might entail but also the land based risks and importantly the increased transport corridors both road and rail all of which need particular planning by CFA. We went on to have a look at Hampton Park, Dandenong South. We checked out the ahead of schedule but still in construction new regional office and district headquarters which includes a deck, wreck and incident control center and that'll be a fantastic facility when that gets finished early in 2014. Then we finished coming back to Dandenong looking through the transformation of the main street of Dandenong. We looked at the new Dandenong fire station site. Construction is expected to commence in that area in the next couple of months. Then finished up at Dandenong fire station having afternoon tea with the staff here where we talked about creating our future together. Some of the challenges that are facing CFA in a budget sense and in our organisational structure. All in all a great day looking around district date and southern metro. I'll actually be back here on Monday afternoon and then training with Dandenong volunteers later in the evening on Monday and you never know if there's a job we might end up on the fire ground. Again I was touched by the strength of relationships between our career staff, the staff in the region and the district, both admin and operational and our volunteers. We are in a period of very tight financial resources and as I remind everyone everywhere we go we are in the lead-up to the fire season. Things are very dry north of the divide that as we drive around it's quite clear there's a lot of grass growth in the district date southern metro area and the operations manager Trevor indicates that they're well on top of planning and exercising for the fire season. So stay focused, stay safe and I'll catch up with you soon.