In addition to training and meeting rooms, the station upgrade will also include more parking, and change rooms for female volunteers

"It means a heck of a lot," vice president of Wallaby Joe brigade, Gary Cox said.

"At the moment when the girls come down and get changed they've got to stand beside the fire trucks in the corridor and hope they don't get walked in on.

"(This funding) will mean they will have a proper facility to come down, get changed, put their gear somewhere, and afterwards have a shower and get cleaned up."

The expanded brigade shed will cater for that number of volunteers that have grown three times in size since the Black Summer bushfires.

Gary Cox said that at the time of the fires in 2019, the brigade had six members.

"We had fundamentally six people out there, day after day, night after night trying to fight the fires, and we didn't have any replacement crew."

Since then the brigade has grown to 30 members, with 20 regulars.

"Now, with the facilities that we're going to have, we'll be able to bring people back, replace the crews, send a second crew out, and operate 24 hours a day under a crew basis."

It is expected the shed expansions will be completed by December 2023.

The $325,000 in funding for the Wallaby Joe brigade is part of a total of a $1.063 million grant from the federal government to MidCoast Council.

In addition to the expansion of the Wallaby Joe shed, council also received $497,259 to roll out free fire response kits under the Household Emergency Plan incentive project, $80,000 for catering facilities to support fire crews, and $161,153 for rural community bushfire resilience training in fuel reduction and fire management for landholders.

Also in the news: Mixed news for Manning's koalas

"The general message is that preparedness is key. Part of the funding also goes to resilience and preparedness, which is really important," MidCoast Council general manager Adrian Panuccio said.

"In that space council will be engaging with 59 of the bushfire impacted communities for disaster preparedness plans."

The Household Emergency Plan incentive project came about as a result of the 2019 bushfires.

"What we learnt from the fires was that the community was just not prepared. It was a significant event. The way we deal with disasters in this modern era is different to how we dealt with disasters 20 or so years ago, so it is important that the community is prepared," Mr Panuccio said.

The goal is to have the plans completed before the next fire season.

The $1.063 million grant will come through the federal government's Black summer Bushfire Recovery Grants Program.

"Council sincerely thanks Dr Gillespie and the Australian government for their investment in better preparing the Mid Coast for future fire events," MidCoast Council deputy mayor, Cr Alan Tickle said at the funding announcement.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:

Did you know? Manning River Times online subscribers not only have 24/7 access to local and national news, sport, what's on and entertainment - they also have access to our print editions in digital format, with all the advertisements and classifieds at their fingertips.