Maitland will become the centre of operations for the new Hunter zone, a conglomerate of Maitland, Cessnock, Port Stephens and Dungog local government areas, with a multi-million dollar headquarters to be built on Mount Vincent Road.

It will replace centres at Cessnock and Port Stephens.

And Maitland City Council projects and city services manager Richard Minter said there was a tight timeframe to meet the Rural Fire Service’s target to move into the building by October.

The council will project manage the development on behalf of the service.

Mr Minter said expressions of interest had been called while final design and site plans were completed to speed up the process.

A short-list of about five builders will be compiled when tenders are called in April or May.

The state-of-the-art headquarters will replace the Louth Park station opposite the Mount Vincent Waste Management Facility.

“This will be a building about 780sqm, to house 25 staff and be the control centre in a bushfire emergency,” Mr Minter said.

A new Louth Park station will also be built.

Maitland was chosen for the headquarters because it was central to the four areas.

Mr Minter, who is also the Local Emergency Management Committee chairman, said the city’s low bushfire risk made it appealing.

“In essence, what we’re doing is what’s happened in the past when there have been bushfires in Dungog, Port Stephens and Cessnock, and the (service) has opened an emergency operations centre in Maitland Police Station,” he said. “Because we’re not affected, it’s a good place to co-ordinate the emergency response.”