Townsville Bulletin

Lavarack bustles as hub rises

- HARRY BRUMPTON

IT will soon become one of the military’s busiest hubs but the $ 152 million Defence Logistics developmen­t at Lavarack Barracks is already buzzing.

The mammoth new upkeep and storage station, which is set to provide a one- stop- shop for troops departing on operations come mid- 2016, has already had a quarter of a million staff hours go into it through its constructi­on contractor, Lend Lease.

The facility is set to take in about 12ha of the base, with warehouses, workshops, food storage, weapons test fire ranges, vehicle equipment shelters, cargo consolidat­ion point, repair pool and a new headquarte­rs.

“On average there’s about 150 people there on site at any one time,” an ADF spokesman said.

The secure stores and maintenanc­e facilities were finished in May, with the repair warehouse due to be finished by the end of this month.

“Then there’s a rolling staged program with facilities coming online on average one every month for the next three months and then after that until the workshops come together in June next year and then general stores and warehouses after that,” the spokesman said.

The developmen­t is part of the Defence Logistics Transforma­tion Program and will complement the Defence Force’s revised maintenanc­e, warehousin­g and distributi­on network Australia- wide.

It will provide efficienci­es and help implement strategies to achieve overall Defence savings initiative­s.

Of a total of 68 work “packets” 39 were awarded to Townsville businesses and a further 10 to businesses from southeast Queensland who have an establishe­d office in Townsville.

Almost 60 per cent of the contractor­s engaged on the project are Townsville- based.

 ??  ?? BASE BLUEPRINT: Lend Lease constructi­on manager Ben Prest reviews plans for the facility.
BASE BLUEPRINT: Lend Lease constructi­on manager Ben Prest reviews plans for the facility.
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