A community pizza oven will be fired by wood sourced from a level crossing removal project, with the help of a local SES training exercise.
A partnership between Edmund Rice Community Services Truganina, the SES Aintree unit, and the Ferris and Hopkins Road Level Crossing Removal team, trees removed as part of the level crossing removal project were donated for reuse.
Edmund Rice community development coordinator Michael Naismith said the idea for the initiative formed after contacting the local SES, where he discovered they needed space and timber for training chainsaw skills.
“I contacted our community connection with the level crossing removalist organisation doing both Hopkins Road and Ferris Road and discussed the need and the thought,” Mr Naismith said.
“They then brought in trees that had to be removed for the project and dropped them at our community site where we’ve got lots of space … then the SES came along on a Wednesday evening – 12 volunteers, two vehicles – and they did chainsaw practice as well as some practise lifting logs as if someone was trapped underneath them,” he said.
“The wood that [was] cut up from the chainsaw practice will be split and then used in our new woodfire pizza oven, that then can benefit community groups.”
Completed on Wednesday, April 30, the crew also cut up stumps during the chainsaw training exercise that will be repurposed into seating for Edmund Rice Community Services Truganina’s campfire area throughout winter.
Formed last year, the newly formed SES Aintree is currently looking for more volunteers.
Details: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551815053639
