December 20th, 2023CCTV for Creswick EV charge station

CCTV surveillance equipment to protect Creswick’s public EV charge station is scheduled for installation this week, Hepburn Shire Council CEO Bradley Thomas has confirmed.

The new 50kW Chargefox station, located beside the town’s visitor Information centre, was taken offline after it was vandalised in August just over three months after becoming operational, much to the disgust of the wider community keen to see progress toward achieving zero-net emissions.

Late last week Mr Thomas confirmed that CCTV equipment is set to be installed this week with  Hepburn Wind (partners in Hepburn shire’s charge station roll-out) expected to then carry out the necessary repairs to the station early in the new year.

“It won’t be up and running for Christmas, unfortunately. Disappointing but obviously we want to get the CCTV in so that it doesn’t happen again or acts as a deterrent, or if it does became vandalised again we might have some opportunity to catch the people,” Mr Thomas said.

“I haven’t got a final cost, but talking to the team, the damage ended up being a bit more costly then we expected, so obviously disappointing. It was a bit more damage then we thought.

“Obviously we want to get people to the regions over Christmas and the new year and you want to be able to encourage people to make that move to EVs. Disappointing all round. We’d rather not have to have CCTV.”

 The Hepburn CEO also confirmed that the similar new fast charge station slated for Trentham will be installed at the town’s new mechanics building, and in line with that project is expected to be in place by mid next year.

The public EV charge station earmarked for Clunes is scheduled for installation in the first quarter of 2024.

Words & Image: Eve Lamb