In the shire last week, Emergency Services Minister Troy Buswell said the new centre would include a facility for the State Emergency Service (SES) and a regional incident control centre to enable emergency services to plan and manage multi-agency incidents.

A new Volunteer Fire and Rescue facility would also be built on the site.

“Western Australia’s South-West is experiencing significant population increases, resulting in greater demands on our emergency services,” Mr Buswell said.

“It’s critical that our emergency service volunteers are adequately prepared and equipped to protect local communities, and this new centre will play an important role in supporting them to manage a wide range of emergencies which occur in this region.

“I commend the Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA) and the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River for their collaboration on bringing this important project to fruition - they identified the need for a new emergency services centre in this region and have worked to make it happen for the local volunteers and the community.”

The Minister said construction of the new facility would be managed by the shire and financed through the Emergency Services Levy.

The new centre was expected to be completed in September 2012.