Katanning welfare centre: region prepared for anything with installation of new back up generator

Representatives from the Rotary Club of Katanning, the Shire of Katanning and emergency service groups gathered at the Katanning Leisure Centre on Wednesday May 31 to mark the successful completion of the KLC Generator Project. “A couple of years ago, we identified the need for a regional emergency welfare facility,” Shire of Katanning CEO Julian Murphy said. “We needed a facility that was big enough that it could become a welfare centre for a large number of people and the leisure centre is quite extensive, it’d be the biggest of its kind in the Central Great Southern, but it lacked a couple of things.” The use of the KLC as a regional emergency welfare centre was proposed at a meeting of the Katanning, Woodanilling and Kent Local Emergency Management Committee in 2021 and upgrades to the facility soon began. What the centre needed was internet connectivity and an ancillary power supply. “We needed to get NBN capability for wireless internet which is here now, and the power generator provides us with a back-up supply if we lose mains power, we can power the whole facility with this generator.” WA-based company Blue Diamond Machinery engineered the 415V diesel generator now housed at the KLC. It was funded primarily through the efforts of the Rotary Club of Katanning after the group received a $96,000 grant from the Rotary Australia World Community Service Limited Bushfire Relief Fund and financial support from the Shire of Katanning. “In 2020 when we had our big fire, people really understood what it meant for a town to come under attack, and it made us aware of what we lacked, which was a facility like this,” Mr Murphy said. “Now we’re ready for anything.” Mr Murphy said that the one thing that Katanning didn’t lack in 2020 was support from neighbouring shires. “Kent established a welfare centre so that people who had to go east were able to stay safely in Nyabing and we also got support from our neighbouring shires providing assistance to fight the fires,” he said. “We’d be happy to do the same for them — it’s a good facility for the entire Upper Great Southern.”