About 25 SES volunteers and officers spent the day collecting coins from passing cars at the Alexandra Fountain intersection.

Bendigo SES volunteer Daniel Reader said the amount of money collected was a great result.

“It looks like we’re on par with the last tin rattle which is really good,” he said.

“There were lots of happy faces and lots of coins coming in the tin. It worked well with the traffic coming through to the footy grand final.”

The fund-raiser was to help SES raise money to buy new “jaws of life” hydraulic cutting equipment. All money raised will go towards replacing the ageing set of “jaws” hydraulic cutting equipment on the unit’s second rescue truck, to improve the capability to respond to road rescues.

Mr Reader said they were in urgent need of an upgrade.

The rise in road rescues in the region recently had led to a growing demand for the secondary set of jaws, he said.

“This fund-raiser should go some way to help us buy the new equipment. We just want to thank all the community and the businesses, such as NAB bank, that helped out.”