Old Dubbo fire station undergoes makeover

Orana Education Centre and Dubbo Local Aboriginal Land Council are working together to restore the building and give participants valuable experience while working on the project.

Possible uses for the building are being discussed at the moment and include a centre for youth, a café and a butcher.

It was operated by the NSW Fire Brigade for several decades, but has been owned by the Aboriginal Land Council since 2001.

The council has been seeking funding for restoration of the building since taking ownership and with the help of Orana Education it was able to begin work, CEO of the council Uppania Sullivan said.

“We’re excited that OEC offered to assist the council to continue our work in restoring this iconic building,” she said.

Orana Education’s Job Services Australia contract provides work for people on the dole.

The CEO of the centre Ian Stanford said this was an example of two organisations working together for the benefit of the community.

He said the participants had been enthusiastic about being involved.

“People like to be kept busy, we were quite impressed,” he said.

“They were much more enthusiastic than we thought they would be.”

Mr Stanford said the project would probably take about six months to complete and they were doing general maintenance to begin with.

When they decide what the building will be used for they will start doing work to accommodate that.

“The beauty of something like this is they’ll be able to drive past it and say ‘I did that’,” he said.

“It’s such a prominent building so they will be able to take real pride in their work.”

Both parties were working closely to formulate a business plan for the site, with a primary objective of maximising community opportunities, they said.

They were aiming to ensure the integrity of the building with its history preserved.

Work began on the building last week.

carly.dolan@ruralpress.com