Covid Qld: Wellcamp quarantine hub’s first guests from Air NZ flight

The State Government’s new quarantine facility near Toowoomba will welcome its first guests this weekend.

The State Government’s Wellcamp quarantine facility will welcome the first cohort of guests on Saturday, with fewer than a dozen arrivals.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles confirmed first guests were due to arrive on an Air New Zealand flight on Saturday.

The group will be taken by bus from Brisbane to the 500-bed facility near Toowoomba.

Queensland Quarantine Taskforce Commissioner Joanne Greenfield, according to the ABC, said the first arrivals would be a mixture of tourists, workers and students.

The quarantine hub at Wellcamp Airport

The accommodation site was originally going to be used for international students, but its purpose was scheduled to change after Queensland opened the borders to vaccinated international travellers without the need for quarantine.

The cost of building the Wellcamp facility has been kept secret.

Aspen Medical will provide on-site services, to be overseen by Queensland Health

There was no tender process to secure Aspen’s services, with taxpayers to be kept in the dark on the cost with the state government citing commercial in confidence.

Half of the beds will be used for unvaccinated international travellers, or international travellers who come from a country where the vaccination program is not recognised or accepted by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration.

The quarantine hub at Wellcamp Airport. Picture: Nev Madsen

The Wellcamp hub has previously inflamed tensions between the State and Federal governments, with the preferred federal option a facility at Pinkenba near Brisbane Airport.