Concrete poured at hub
THE Toowoomba quarantine hub is on track to have 500 beds up and running by Christmas with the first concrete poured at the Wellcamp site.
This comes as the Queensland Government revealed the masterplan for the facility, which will have more than 1000 beds once fully operational in the first three months of 2022.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles was on site of the quarantine hub, which will be known as the Queensland Regional Accommodation Centre, to inspect the construction progress.
“This will be a really useful addition to our tools to protect the community from Covid-19 as well as bring people back here from around the world,” he said.
“Construction is moving ahead swiftly and Wagner Corporation has confirmed we are on track for the first stage of the quarantine facility to be delivered for use by the end of 2021.”
Mr Miles said accommodation modules would be built in Toowoomba, and that Queensland Health, Queensland Police Service and Queensland Fire and Emergency Services had worked closely with Wagner Corporation on the design of the facility.
“There’s about 35 local workers on site right now and that will increase over the next month to about 100 on site here as well as another 100 workers building the cabins themselves off-site, making a really valuable contribution to the local economy,” Mr Miles said.
“We’ve been working really closely with local businesses on not just how they can contribute to the build but also how they can benefit from the ongoing operations of the accommodation facility so we can make sure that as much as possible the services, the food the other supplies can be sourced locally providing local economic benefits and local jobs.
“The first of the cabins will be craned in over the coming weeks and things will continue to move very quickly on the site of the country’s second dedicated accommodation facility.”
Wagner Corporation Chairman John Wagner said the first concrete pour was a significant milestone.
“We’re pleased to have the project on-track and to be doing what we said we’d do – delivering an important project for Queensland and Australia,” Mr Wagner said.
“The facility will enhance safety and provide much needed additional capacity to Queensland’s existing hotel quarantine system.”
Despite building the facility in proximity to an airport, Mr Miles confirmed negotiations were still ongoing with the federal government to secure international flights to Wellcamp Airport.
“I’d be very surprised if at the end of the day the Morrison government stood in the way of us safely bringing passengers here,” he said.
“There would be no reason to do that other than politics. I expect that once the facility is up and running we’ll be able to land people (at Wellcamp and) bus them to the facility in just a couple of minutes.”